The Wilderness Festival 2013

Wilderness this year was hard work!  The festival was awesome, the food fantastic, and the park as ever was stunning.  It was hard work because I didn’t sleep the entire time I was there.

For some reason as I’ve got older the slightest unexpected noise will wake me up; if there are people talking near me while I’m trying to sleep it’s basically game over.  If those people are teenagers talking about how much fun they are having it’s all I can do not to turn into a RAGE HULK and smash their teeth in.

I don’t mind kids having a good time they just need to do it in a quiet, orderly fashion, and preferably away from me.  One of our other neighbours seemed to be the camp sites only dealer as well.  He head a steady stream of visitors during the night and regaled one and all with awkward tales about his life.

Our favourite being his time as a trainer at the London Dungeon; he was happily working there till he split up from his girlfriend and became a meth addict for three years.  Each time the tale was embellished with new and exciting details but each time he wanted everyone to see his teeth and how lucky he was to keep them all…

He was though completely harmless and so very damaged you couldn’t help but feel for the guy in the end.  Camp site politics aside there was so much to see this time round.

It wasn’t so much about the music for us and we spent a good amount of time each day in the forum hosted by the Huffington Post.  Highlights for me included the rather excellent Jon Ronson talking about his latest book the Psychopath test.  His easy presentational style and charming manner had the crowd laughing along and enthralled the entire time he was on stage.

Most eye opening though was an open forum talk about feminism with Bonnie Greer, Caroline Criado-Perez, and Lucy-Anne Holmes of the No More Page 3 campaign.  I’m going to admit that this was a pretty life changing talk for me.  I’ve always thought of myself as an equalitarian but I don’t think I’d actually opened my eyes properly to the size of the problem out there.

Musical highlights have to include the amazing Empire of theSun; their set was a stunning audio-visual delight and most easily described as a cross between Daft Punk and the Pet Shop Boys.  Tom Odell rocked his set and the crowd went wild with the energy just pouring from the stage!

The food was even better this year with some fantastic new street food vendors!  I got to try the frankly life-saving Rainbo this year.  Their Gyoza and rainbow slaw is a must for anyone feeling grotty and in need of some clean food to get them going again.

Bleeker St Burgers served up some stunning meaty treats.  French and Grace’s Halloumi wrap was a delight.  Original Fry Up Material’s take on the Sausage and Egg McMuffin was the perfect way to shift a hangover but Moro’s scrambled eggs with Chorizo probably just pipped them for the best breakfast crown.

Some of my favourite moments this year were away from the melee of the main stage and headline acts.   Just sitting watching the cricket was elixir for the soul; the commentator really made the match great fun.  Walking round the lakes was beautiful as ever as well; the site is stunning, just camping in that park is treat enough for me.

You can book your tickets for next year now and I highly recommend you do.