 |
| The lake at Wilderness |
Wilderness Festival is held at Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire - a rambling country estate with shady dells, wide-open fields and lakes for midnight swims. I went along as a guest of Wilderness last weekend to check out what has been billed as Britain's '
foodiest festival.'
The food was several dozen levels above the dodgy offerings at most festivals, with stalls from
The Breakfast Club, Liverpool's Bold Street Coffee (great flat whites),
The Bowler's meatball van and
Anna Mae's southern comfort food (I love their mac n' cheese) among the many highlights...
 |
| Cheeky sign from The British Sausage Company stall |
Moro had a souk tent filled with long tables, comfy cushions and jars of blue and red wildflowers. The tent was packed all weekend, but I managed to grab a bowl of granola and yogurt with a delicate rose syrup for breakfast.
 |
| The Moro souk tent at Wilderness |
An adorable sweet shop in a shed in the children's area...
 |
| Sweetie time at Wilderness |
 |
| Anna Mae's - one of my favourite street food vans |
Always good to see The Bowler's turf-covered van dishing up meatballs. Its Thai chicken meatballs with brown rice and homemade 'slaw were delicious.
 |
| The Bowler |
One of the highlights of the weekend was the feasts held in a banqueting tent. The feasts were catered by Valentine Warner, Fergus Henderson and Yotam Ottolenghi - it doesn't get much better than that. I went to the Ottolenghi feast on the Saturday lunchtime, where Yotam was very much in evidence in the kitchen overseeing the communal feasting dishes.
Setting up for Ottolenghi's feast inside the banqueting tent...
 |
| Ottolenghi feast at Wilderness... |
The menu read like a greatest hits of Ottolenghi dishes from his two cookbooks and London cafes. I've made this aubergine dish with buttermilk from
Plenty many times, but somehow it never tastes quite as sweet yet earthy as this...
 |
| Aubergines with buttermilk and pomegranate |
There was an incredible dish of tender roasted sirloin with a zesty coriander and mustard topping. And this beautiful, meaty pan-fried bream with a jammy harissa sauce and rose petals...
 |
| Ottolenghi's pan-fried sea bream with harissa and rose |
Another festival highlight was Future Cinema at Wilderness. Here's the cinema stage by day, opening onto the fields beyond. By night the area was transformed for screenings of Bugsy Malone, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and La Haine with a live score by Asian Dub Foundation...
 |
| Secret Cinema at Wilderness |
Festival-goers attempted to break the record for the World's Biggest Skinny Dip at the same time as other nuddy bathers around the world. I took this snap from a modesty-preserving distance for the bathers!
 |
| Skinny dip world record attempt at Wilderness |
There was so much more than food, movies and spontaneous nudity though. One of my favourite things about Wilderness was that everyone there could have the kind of festival they wanted. The food lovers could eat dishes cooked by their chef-heroes. Children could run amok in the family area with storytelling, games and singalongs. And - Daily Mail word alert - revellers could go crazy at The Old Vic Tunnels' Midnight Masked Ball deep in the forest. There was an outdoor spa with hot tubs, music from The Temper Trap and Rodrigo y Gabriella, a 1920s speakeasy where we learnt the Lambeth Walk, talks on everything from the Congo to the art of slow travel, and lots and lots of yoga.
What a weekend.
Sun sets on the beautiful Cornbury Park Estate...
 |
| Wilderness Festival |
Early-bird tickets are now on sale for Wilderness Festival 2013 from
wildernessfestival.com
Posts
11 comments:
This looks wonderful! Wildnerness is definitely on my festival wish list :)
Niamh - you would love!
This look fab Katy. Been yearning to try Anna Mea's food from the van in London. Loving all the photos of Ottolenghi's dishes. Might try & get to this festival. M x
Gutted I had to cancel. Would have loved it I'm sure. Great review!
Maunika, Dom - you would love it. Next year!
We went last year, having won tickets - we thought it was great, and amazingly well done for the first year! The only problem was queues for the food vendors - people could be queuing for an hour or so to get some food - a bit much! I was 7 1/2mth pregnant (with a small bump, thankfully!) and it was such a happy, chilled out festival. We didn't make it this year because we were away but, agree with you, it's lovely to have a festie that takes food as seriously as it does music. The line up for last year was great - Antony and the Johnsons, Toots and the Maytals, and Gogol Bordello were the highlights!
Sounds like my type of festival! Mind you I do think the food is generally pretty good at UK festivals - I've had some great meals at Glastonbury and Bestival, although not quite Ottolenghi standard I must admit!
Cara - true, the standard is getting a lot better at festivals, especially the more artsy ones, but haven't experienced anything on this level yet. I went to the Olympic closing concert in Hyde Park the same weekend and while Blur were fab, the food was terrible.
Vicky - thanks for your comment. There were so many families there with young children, perhaps you can go back next year? The Moro queue was pretty long this year but there were about 30-40 food stalls so mostly the queues were pretty small - perhaps they've learnt from last year!
We'd definitely go back - it's so fun seeing children at festies!
Very very tempting stuff! perhaps next year?
Oh my gosh you were there Katy! I missed you. And woe is me - I gave up my Ottolenghi banquet ticket for love no less.
Oh woe. xx
Post a Comment