After 18 months of no events, no crowds, no live music this summer life has felt like a burst of normality. As soon as we saw a glimmer of hope that large scale events could be back on my friends and I booked all of our favourite festivals. The one we were most excited for, and crossed our fingers would go ahead, was Wilderness.

Held in the Oxfordshire countryside Wilderness is a four day boutique festival spanning music, the arts, food and wellbeing. Several of the Talking Tables team had been and were also planning to go, and we all got excited as the time neared!

This year’s theme for the festival was Maximalism – bright colours, patterns, clashing prints. Each month at Talking Tables the design team offer ‘Design Insights’ – looking at upcoming trends across industries, which help us design and create product, as well as put together marketing campaigns and shoots. We had recently spoken about maximalism and how it was a key theme, particularly in fashion. This was partly due to the end of restrictions and lockdown, and the freedom and desire to live life to the full again! My friends and I were excited to put outfits together and wanted to make sure we were doing so sustainably. We went to second-hand vintage shops and searched through old fancy dress. Safe to say we put together some wild attire!

For the 4 days of the festival we stayed in tipi tents – very similar to the ones we had for the Talking Tables Festival of Freedom. We spent the days exploring the festival site – going from tent to tent and dancing to different DJ’s, enjoying the pop up bars and food stalls offering every cuisine you can imagine. When the bars closed everyone headed down to the most incredible party held in a valley in the woods. There appeared to be thousands of people all together! All thoughts of restrictions and covid vanished from our minds. We met some great people, all dressed in their maximalism outfits. It was great to run into TT's Miriam as well, who was volunteering in the info tent!

The weather held out for most of the weekend with just a few downpours (plastic rain cagouls are life saving!).

Top tips for those thinking of going next year:

• Book early, it sells out quickly!
• Really stick to the theme – everyone looked amazing!
• You’ll need to try and get as much sleep as possible each night – we averaged around 38,000 steps a day
• Book in for the feasts – amazing long tables with incredible food
• Prepare for all weather conditions. Wellies are a must!

We are now back in the Talking Tables office reminicing on an amazing few days (and trying to get our voices back!) I cannot wait for Wilderness 2022!

Check out the website here

- Beth