Into the Wild is about as unpretentious a festival as you can imagine. It feels homespun and, dare I say it, cobbled-together and exudes a charm and warmth that’s irresistibly contagious. After a summer of reviewing many festivals, the moment I arrived at this festival’s gorgeous Sussex site I felt I could relax and breathe. At the risk of inducing vomit, it felt like a homecoming.
Okay, the biblical-level deluge on Saturday did dampen my mood a little (lot), but not for long. A bonding moment of British weather moaning with a fellow bedraggled wannabe-reveller, followed by a restorative chai – it’s an alcohol and drug free festival – in the Tibetan Yak and Yeti café sorted me out, and soon I was out dancing in the rain with the best of them. Then the sun came out. Praise the Lord!
This year, the festival’s tenth, it felt like there were more families than ever. I’m not surprised. There’s a huge amount put on for children, from circus skills to crafts, to storytelling, a pirate ship, to warrior and superpower yoga, to lots of play in nature and God knows what else. It felt wildly wholesome and eons away from the world of screens and perceived stranger danger.
Into the Wild is far from only about families though; there’s more or less an equal mix of children, teens, younger-end adults, middle aged and older people in attendance. And perhaps surprisingly given the general vibe, they’re not all hippies. There are plenty of, er, straights in the crowd, or maybe they’re ‘hippies-acting-straight’, you never know in these – don’t cancel me - gender-fuzzy times. What I’m rather clumsily trying to say is you don’t need to be achingly hip to come along to Into the Wild, you don’t need to be any particular age or gender or ethnicity, you don’t need to dress up or dress down…you can just be who you are. Anyone would think I’m a fan.
As a working-endlessly-on-myself junkie – AKA I’m exceptionally fascinating (and near perfect now btw) – I particularly love the comprehensive timetable of touchy-feely workshops and talks at this festival. The quality is inevitably mixed, with some leaving me underwhelmed, but in the main they’re very good. This year I went along to a fair few, including Radical Acceptance, Releasing Barriers, Family Constellations, Sophia Efthimiou’s Singing Ourselves Home, a sound bath, and Reconnection. Just one more and I’ll be enlightened.
There’s an extensive programme of music going down too of course, including an open mic stage, the excellent Enchanted Wood Stage – Mobius Loop and Bakk Lamp Fall were highlights, the gorgeous Wise Owl Wood Glade stage, the LoveJam and Zutopia stages, and a daily cabaret.
If for some extraordinary reason music and sorting out your traumas aren’t your thing, there are also all sorts of activities going on in the Wild Crafts Area, plus a range of in-depth nature-based talks in the Wilderlands Tent. And if you’re bored with all of that you can just hang out – literally – in the de-rigeur-but-not-obligatory naked sauna.
I could go on, but you’ll just have to come along next August bank holiday to discover Into the Wild for yourself. Take it from me, it’ll be worth it. I’m most definitely planning to be there again myself.
By Neil del Strother www.neildelstrother.co.uk
Published on 30 August 2024 by Neil del Strother
