Original image: Andrew Whitton, Wilderness Festival

Notes-to-self and links from a wonderful weekend in Cornbury Park.

Thursday

Moths by Moonlight

Highlight! Strolled into the woods, led by lovely folks at Butterfly Conservation.

They’d put out moth traps the night before then cooled the moths so they relaxed.

As we handled them in bottles, they warmed up and started to vibrate, then flew away.

Examined plants and undergrowth with an Ultraviolet torch. Stunning all the secret detail that’s not visible to us normally.

Links:

• ObsIdentify for identifying moths and other things
• NHBS - Wildlife, Ecology & Conservation shop online store selling bat detectors
• Butterfly Conservation on UV surveys
• Alonefire X901UV UV torch 365nm 10W - UV torch

Programme hack:

Free activity but it showed up as Sold Out. We chanced it and turned up to see if there were any no-shows. Only 3 of 15 booked people came, so we made up half the group. Glad we did!

Friday

Swim in the lake

Dreamy.

Creative Quests

Lovely talk. Started with doing one creative thing per month for a year.

CREATIVE QUESTS is a global community and playground for people fuelled by curiosity.

creativequests.world

Police Cops: Badass Be Thy Name

Very silly, funny, set to 90s rave music.

policecops.co.uk

Is this working? Or is work bullsh*t?

The very charming Charlie Colenutt has interviewed 100 people around the UK about their work lives. Lovely talk.

Book: Is this working? Goodreads

Love, Lies and Affairs with Juliet Rosenfeld

Six stories of real life affairs, written by a psycholanalyst.

The book sounds great but the interview assumed we’d all read it, poor promo!

Mushroom coffee

Spotted an intriguing stall selling coffee including various mushrooms.

I’m off booze this summer, thought this could be interesting.

Tried cordyceps for “energy”. Zero observable effect.

Boat in the lake

Took a rowing boat on the lake. No queue, nothing to pay. Funny dad & son due were trying (failing) to ram other boats, Lisa rowed us to safety!

Air

Cool, dreamy, they did “sexy boy” which I knew but didn’t know the band.

Saturday

Wilderness Behind The Scenes

Brilliant as always to meet the organisers. I was worried about visitor numbers being down but was reassured that

1. ticket sales were up on last year
2. despite it being difficult post-Brexit and post-COVID, Wilderness’ future is secure

Cricket

First time watching it properly! Some actually great cricket and some hilarious streaking. Great commentary.

Showhawk Duo

Love these guys: lots of nostalgic 90 / 2000s dance music performed on guitars. Saw a few years ago in the Jumpyard. I think they suit a smaller, darker venue, but it was fab nonetheless.

Swim in the lake

Lovely to swim in the afternoon with fewer people.

Nap & campsite

One of the highlights, recharging and hanging out with the gang at the tents.

Yuck Circus

I’ll just say I didn’t get it and wouldn’t go again.

Ibiza Brass at the Club House

Lovely hour dancing with Lisa to DJ Max Galactic and the Brass Funkeys.

A couple got married at Wilderness today and had their first dance in the Club House. Very sweet.

Ashes to Ashes (Cabaret)

Organised by Cabaret vs Cancer this year, different from last year’s scary/awesome show.

This was David-Bowie themed and had fantastic perfomers.

Highlight was singer Ruby Wednesday. Their stage presence was gripping and their voice was the most powerful I’ve ever heard live. The whole audience was hanging on their every movement.

Ashes To Ashes is a show by Cabaret vs Cancer, a London-based charity providing aid to those impacted by cancer and child bereavement teams.

Jo Whiley’s 90s Anthems

Great bangers, just had to overlook that it felt like we were pilgrims at the “Temple of Audi” (as coined by the cricket commentator).

Sunday

Coffee with Lorna W

Lovely catch-up. Talked about Stoics.

All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud and Fine Art

Riveting talk Orlando Whitfield about Inigo Philbrick, his art-school best friend, who ultimately ripped him off.

Book: All That Glitters

Does Nature Need a Marketing Agency?

Interview with Lisa Merrick-Lawless. Brilliant work:

Oil companies have ad agencies. Nature doesn’t even have a spokesperson.

Agency for Nature is a creative initiative by Purpose Disruptors and Glimpse, where leading UK ad agencies seconded emerging talent to work on a unique brief: treat Nature as the client.

Through bold campaigns, cultural experiences, and open-source tools, they reconnect young, urban audiences with nature—using the language of fashion, music, gaming, and humor.

Chat with Morgan & India

So nice to chat to our friends that we spot every year at this and other festivals.

Next year’s How The Light Gets In we’re doing a long table banquet together!

Bread and War: A Ukrainian Story of Food, Bravery and Hope

Lovely talk by Felicity Spector.

In Bread and War, Channel 4 News journalist and food writer Felicity Spector travels through Ukraine’s war-torn kitchens, cafes and bakeries, meeting the cooks, soldiers and volunteers using food as a lifeline and a symbol of resistance.

Book: Bread and War: A Ukrainian Story of Food, Bravery and Hope

Devil in the Stack: A Coding Odyssey

Andrew Smith talking very humanly about code, and his experience as a journalist learning to code in his 50s.

Andrew has a charming manner and the book sounds great, so I bought it.

Acclaimed journalist and bestselling author Andrew Smith explores the hidden world of code—the algorithms silently shaping our lives. In Devil in the Stack, Smith learns to code himself, tracing a path from Ada Lovelace and Alan Turing to today’s AI pioneers.

Both immersive and unsettling, his journey reveals code as a culture, a force, and a looming question: who—or what—controls our future?

Book: Devil in the Stack: A Coding Odyssey

Swim

Lovely.

God’s Jukebox

Gorgeous, always. Wilderness Orchestra performs songs that people request with heart-felt dedications.

Afriquoi

Live African dance music, fusing Congolese guitar + Gambian kora virtuosity with UK electronic sensibilities to create uplifting, dancefloor- friendly new music for a new generation of music fans.

Great, high energy, loved it.

Basement Jaxx

Nostalgic, amazing set on the main stage, huge ramp with a hole in the middle for the DJs.

Comedy: Scott Bennett

I cried laughing at this. Very sharp observations about mundane things made funny, like the oppression of zip sounds while camping, and gleeful primary teachers sending home piles of “art”.

Very funny, good-hearted. Loved it.

Favourite food

• Pizzeria - gorgeous Neopolitan bases, great toppings (brie, goats cheese etc)
• Pasta Bowl - fiery mac n cheese (all GF as standard)
• Sushi wrap - “fully loaded” with avocado, peppers, thai sweet potato
• Guasa Arepas - breakfast bowl with black beans