Wilderness 2021

[adequate8]

3 minutes ago, incident said:

Previously, MAMA Festivals were operating as kind of a "niche" company within Live Nation, and were able to do their own thing in a lot of respects - which sometimes meant doing things differently than the more "mainstream" events operated by Festival Republic.

At some point in the past few months, Wilderness was internally transferred from MAMA to Festival Republic, and FR were running the show top to bottom this time - quite a few suppliers / contractors were replaced with the ones FR use at their other events, which led to some serious operational problems (chaos wouldn't be an overstatement). Security and Toilets being the two biggest issues.

I don't think there was an actual overall reduction in toilet provision - just that there was significantly more people on site this year (was told 24,000 inc staff) and that the previous supplier used to empty/clean them about 3 times more often than A1 did this year.

Thanks, was totally unaware! At least 10 food vendors were also at Latitude, and it had the same ‘craft beer’ bar and Nordic spirit thing. I’m guessing Carlsberg will get the nod over San Miguel too for next year. 

[incident]

1 minute ago, adequate8 said:

Thanks, was totally unaware! At least 10 food vendors were also at Latitude, and it had the same ‘craft beer’ bar and Nordic spirit thing. I’m guessing Carlsberg will get the nod over San Miguel too for next year. 

Doubt the beer would change like that - San Miguel is already a Carlsberg property and a much better fit for the intended tone of the festival.

Same for that nice Italian lager being sold near the main stage.

[WestOxonwards]

My fourth and probably final visit, despite living a few miles away.

Terrible line up due to obvious cut back on budgets. A real lack of bands and a couple less venues.....none of the glorious stumbling upon a band you hadn't heard before. Lot of solo acts or blokes stood at decks/laptops. FR have a massive amount to answer for and I hope the powers that be at Cornbury House tell then to f off back to reading and Leeds as it was a disgrace to the area how the venue was being treated. 

Bicep and Jamie XX back to back on a Saturday pre 10pm was an absolute joke too. Monotonous when not on 'one' at 3am.

 Found the food kiosks not as varied as previous years and just the general vibe way down .....when after what we have been through....it should have been through the roof. The sight of thousands leaving on Sunday was a damning indictment of those planning and running the festival not being up to the job given the wonderful venue.

Edited August 9, 2021 by WestOxonwards

[Joshuwarr]

Interesting reading these comments. This was my first Wilderness and we basically went as a back up to our usual. I actually had a good weekend but I think that was largely down to the great company.

Some pros and cons...

Pros:

- The site is great. I really enjoyed the little walk each morning by the lake and to see lots of people enjoying a swim (bit annoyed I never got round to doing it myself!)

- Some (I repeat some) memorable sets. After a year and a half of really missing these kinds of experiences it was great to be able to enjoy sets from bands or artists I'd enjoyed in lockdown. Highlights for me were Sports Team, Mahalia and Weird Milk on the main stage. Some great DJs too - Blessed Madonna was especially great.

- Nice people. Whilst there were definitely one or two idiots around the campsite I genuinely met some really lovely people.

- The House of Sublime. Spent two amazing nights there. Our crew are all gay so we really enjoyed a lot of the alternative and queer entertainment on offer.

Cons:

- Stewarding/General safety. Not to say those there didn't do a good job but I really felt a lack of stewarding and security on site. Sometimes that can be a good thing but some venues that really needed to be operating a one in, one out policy would just have a single steward down the front not really doing anything. I would not know what would have happened if there was an incident.

- Facilities. Not enough toilets on site and an actual disgrace that there were just ten portaloos at the Valley. The mud was also impossible to deal with in parts of The Valley too where I believe someone even broke their leg one night. We were at the far end of the campsite and it was quite annoying to have no food vendors anywhere near us. I'm sure another breakfast bar (even just one) would have done well from punters where we were.

- Main stage line up. Whilst I really enjoyed the sets I went to it did feel really noticeable to not have another name like Foals on the line up. Felt like a big step down on the 2020 line up.

All in all I had a good time and have made some great memories too. I do think part of the enjoyment just came from being with good friends sat around talking nonsense in a campsite again though.

I would probably consider returning next year if the line up was an improvement on this year but only as a back up if we decide to go to more than just Glastonbury.

[March Hare]

Just back from the festival and had a blast. Loyle Carner was fantastic and you could feel the buzz in the crowd. Mahalia was a good sub.  Jaime XX is a bland headliner as a DJ set imo. Rudimental we’re fantastic and the choir and supporting performers they brought along (including Anne-Marie!) we’re electric. A proper headline set.  Valley was a party but got to get there in good time just like SE corner. Show up at peak time and get what you expect.

I saw Thrill Collins doing mash ups of songs at The Jumpyard on Thursday. They were amazing.

Non-music stuff was entertaining, such as the cricket, and the guy roasting the players on the mic was hilarious.  House of Sublime was fun whenever you popped your head in.  Free rowing boats were cool. Food options plentiful, had some cracking meals. Few you will see at Glasto, Green Man etc such as budda bowl and Dosa.  Nyetimber tent was a good place to hang out and neck a couple of bottles away from the rain. Verve Clicquot tent was good for a party later in the night and £15 a glass was reasonable.  Had a cocktail making class at Red Bull tent for £18, inc two cocktails to drink. Malfi gin tent did a good cocktail for £10.

Saturday night rain pummelled cheap and badly put up tents. That was a wild hour where you just had to take shelter. Loos were bad, arena wasn’t too muddy, paths in and out of camps were muddy. Very little hay/wood chipping used to cancel it out - that was an error.

If you want the real Wildnerness experience (ironically) you have to pay for top end boutique camping. If you don’t, it’s just a regular festival with fancy frills in the arena. 

50/50 if I’ll go back.

Edited August 9, 2021 by March Hare

[March Hare]

6 hours ago, WestOxonwards said:

Big lack of bands, lots of solo acts, not many other live venues to stumble up bands, lots of djs (Craig Charles is good but come on he'll DJ at a drop of a hat for a few hundred) and as for Saturday evening.....four hours of two blokes hiding behind their laptops/decks. Great individually, great down the valley but back to back on the main stage?! Shoddy thinking around the line up and smacked big cost cutting and a whole lot of a lack of imagination/knowledge of the music scene to get bands.

 

I think that’s what the crowd wants. Lots of DJs and more rap and dance. Its very nice to show up with kids and watch the cricket and row a boat. But that doesn’t bring in the £££s. It was my first Wilderness and the vibe was affluent 20-50 who wanted cocktails, champagne (not Prosecco), to dance and, ahem, other things.

The families looked out of place in the evening.

[March Hare]

A few photos:

Rudimental on the main stage,

Mud in the arena

Cricket match (recommended)

[adequate8]

3 hours ago, Joshuwarr said:

- Main stage line up. Whilst I really enjoyed the sets I went to it did feel really noticeable to not have another name like Foals on the line up. Felt like a big step down on the 2020 line up.

Wilderness dodged a bullet with Supergrass given the Tramlines feedback (and they were boring at Latitude). Jamie XX instead of Foals was a slight downgrade but Rudimental over Supergrass is much better.
 

Rest is much of a muchness compared to last years. 

[VanderlyleTea]

My first Wilderness and I had a great time. I definitely agree with lots of the comments on here about the downsides to the festival. According to a few people they threw it all together very quickly as they were waiting for confirmation that the 19th July lifting of restrictions was actually going ahead. This is the reason that there were less toilets, showers, wood chip for mud and security in general.

We discovered that walking to the arena entrance from the family and meadow side of the campsite, you could literally walk right into the arena with your beers or gin and tonics in hand. Although this was because of lack of security, it actually created no issues and was really nice.

The budget cuts were so obvious on the main stage line up. Loyle Carner has previously had a great band but clearly they didn’t pay him enough for that. Still really enjoyed his set. I love Jamie XX but his set wasn’t as good as it has been before. Rudimental were incredible.
 

The Atrium was a really good place to be for a variety of acts. But it’s a shame that there was not more music at the festival as a whole. Lots of stages/bars playing very similar music.

Overall, great festival weekend. If I had been before then maybe I’d be more disappointed but as a first time, it’s really promising.

 

[Leyrulion]

Saturday was noticeably busier then the other days so they sold a lot of day tickets for the bicep/jamiexx line up. If that's not your thing fine, they released the line up far enough in advance and bicep were carry over from 2019. 

Although a Saturday sunset gig was an interesting timeslot for them I thought they pulled it off pretty well.

Mahalia and loyle carner were noticeable for not doing encores, I loved them but the crowd were not into it.

Toilet provision was noticeably bad for queues but even on Friday night before Loyle Carner by the main stage they still had loads of toilet roll in them and you could have done a sit down wee if you wanted. They were better then lots of other festivals I've been to, but maybe worse by the standards of this one.

I would love to see the risk assessment for the valley, how they've got that agreed I've no idea.