Concert News
Audi Presents Wilderness – Scissor Sisters, Carl Cox, The Last Dinner Party, Sisters: curated by Annie Lennox, Soulwax, Baxter Dury, Saint Etienne and more
Audi Presents Wilderness Festival returns to the unparalleled nature reserve of Cornbury Park, celebrating a divine fifteenth edition teaming with multi-talented artists, unorthodox performances and experiences designed for maximum euphoria. Find yourself exquisitely lost in the wilderness, as your tastebuds are teased, opinions shaken, ribs thoroughly tickled, expectations expanded and heart blown wide open.
Headline chefs create mystical long table banquets, musical icons cast main stage spells, enchanting arthouse performers meet ridiculous night games and parties beneath the trees jostle against provocative discussion and the wildest pursuits. Audi Presents Wilderness is created to push your buttons and your boundaries, to whirl you onto delirious dancefloors, take you deep into the forest or laughing across the green. Come and find your wild.
Gracing the Wilderness Stage for season fifteen, the festival announces one of its most glorious line-ups to date: Scissor Sisters, The Last Dinner Party, Carl Cox, Soulwax, Baxter Dury and Saint Etienne will all be joined by Sisters: curated by Annie Lennox.
Sisters: curated by Annie Lennox is a unique festival takeover. Bringing together a hand-picked collection of performers, Annie will present some incredible moments to raise funds and highlight the work of the global feminist organisation The Circle. Founded by Annie Lennox and other leading women, The Circle supports women and girls confronting gender-based violence and economic injustice across the world. Annie will curate the unique show with her talented friends in support of women’s rights. Prepare for a festival first.
The place for blazing, golden hour performances and huge headline shows, a multitude of talented musical icons, rising stars and global virtuosos have graced the Wilderness Stage over the years, in a programme as diverse as it is ambitious. This year, NY’s era-defining pop disrupters Scissor Sisters are back. They performed their first live shows in 12 years last summer, bringing with them their trademark galvanizing queer energy, sizzling showmanship and a slew of saucy stadium bangers. Hyper-camp hedonism splayed across a gleaming glam rock backdrop: buckle up for a show of colossal proportions.
The Last Dinner Party return to Wilderness as headliners, coming full circle in a meteoric rise which began on the Stargazer stage in 2022. Formed in 2021, the theatrical art-pop outfit quickly became one of London’s hottest new bands, expect a dazzling homecoming set packed with baroque pop, romantic drama and masterful songwriting.
Global DJ, producer and acid house pioneer Carl Cox will be playing one of the opening sets at Audi presents Wilderness this year: a super rare and deeply danceable funk and soul session on The Atrium. He will also deliver a headline Carl Cox special on the Wilderness Stage featuring his renowned floor-filling wizardry. Cox has become a defining force in techno during the many highs of his 40-year career.
Belgium brothers David and Stephen Dewaele are Soulwax – the iconic and highly influential outfit who began unleashing their cocktail of rock and electronic music on the world in 1995. The band are performing live again, having just released their seventh studio album, ‘All Systems Are Lying’. Their remix back catalogue is unrivalled. Kylie, MGMT, Gorillaz, Muse, Robyn, The Chemical Brothers and many more have had the Soulwax treatment. With a foot firmly in each camp, a Soulwax gig might lead to moshing or raving – or hopefully, both.
Baxter Dury – the effortlessly inventive likely lad, part beat poet, part lounge lizard whose stage persona employs a louche hedonism and an arresting swagger. The Wilderness Stage will be the perfect setting for his late-night lothario caricature. True arbiters of many genres and styles, Saint Etienne have been making music since the late 80s and boast an astonishing roster, from slick dancefloor tracks to heartbreaking ballads with real orchestral arrangements. They have billed this series of performances as their ‘farewell tour’ and will be performing the ‘best of the best’ from their discography. London rock duo Good Neighbours is a nod to classic songwriting and raucous production, with an urge to rekindle the early 2000s excitement of bands like Passion Pit and MGMT. Their debut album ‘Blue Sky Mentality’ came out last year.
The House and Garage Orchestra bring back the iconic sounds of house and garage anthems with fresh orchestral arrangements to uplifting effect. Expect guest vocalists and full body rave tingles. New Orleans real deal The Hot 8 Brass Band return with their sizzling blend of jazz, hip hop and funk styles with trad New Orleans brass and bounce for a full-on Mardi Gras-style Wilderness Stage shakedown. And renowned reggae doyennes Janet Kay and Carroll Thompson have joined forces to become the ‘Queens of Lover’s Rock’, an exciting soulful reggae show filled with classic cuts and underground heat from their impressive collection of hits.
Wilderness is delighted to announce the return of Audi as the headline partner for 2026. Dedicated to creating unforgettable experiences, the Wilderness and Audi partnership promises a curation of magical and immersive happenings. So, whether you enjoyed the fine hospitality and mesmerising events at The Audi Haven during last year’s festivities, or are a first timer at Wilderness, prepare for something unexpected this year.
The Atrium, the hallowed canopied stage at which you’re as likely to find mass participatory madness as high-brow theatre, electronic heroes playing alternative sets or the finest jazz musicians of the golden age blowing minds along with their saxophones. It’s home to The Wilderness Orchestra – the 50-piece symphony orchestra that is the festival’s house band. This year, they pay tribute to The Beatles with Here, There and Everywhere. And one of the cornerstones of the participatory programme God’s Jukebox returns, uniting the crowd in heart-swelling orchestral performances of audience-requested arrangements of the classic tunes that have soundtracked their lives. It’s so spine-tingling the air crackles. Women In Jazz is the community celebrating and showcasing the music and stories of women, from singer-songwriters to producers, instrumentalists and composers. They unite immense talents to perform a spine-tingling takeover on The Atrium. Last year, Nubiyan Twist and Rosie Lowe took to the stage. This year’s guests are to be announced.
This year, there are secrets to be found by those who seek them…Wilderness opens into something bigger: new worlds reveal themselves slowly, gently – if you’re willing to look for them. Get lost in the Wilderness and find ten new secret venues. Dive deep, venture bravely, find your wild. Meet strangers who feel like fate, creatures who lure you to go deeper and dare you to stay longer. These places exist outside the clock. Time stretches, then slips. One moment becomes many, and suddenly you’re back where you started. Not all those who wonder are lost…
Secret walled garden venue The Riddle returns with another informed line-up aimed squarely at the (phone-free) dancefloor. Horse Meat Disco’s Luke Howard, Sinego, Dave Lee, Dan Shake, Demi Riquísimo and Grace Sands are among the line-up who will be putting you through your pace.
The Night Realm is the place where dreams are made real, packed with parties and crackling to life after sunset, lights will guide your way as you wander deeper. Lose your inhibitions and descend into The Valley – the late-night forest dancefloor sliced with lasers and ricocheted by global DJs wielding hypnotic, groove-laden beats. A true escape into another dimension, this year, the mighty Groove Armada will be transporting the dancefloor with a DJ set featuring their watertight back catalogue of incredible tunes produced over their 26+ year glittering career. Elrow and Defected resident, vinyl connoisseur and dedicated groove aficionado Olive F and up-and-coming star Delilah make their Valley debuts.
The opulent People’s Front Room is a returning highlight, with velvet-lined walls, Persian rugs and some of the best live music you’ll hear all weekend.
Home to underground, alternative music, The Dive borrows its grunge aesthetics from the indie rock underground venues across the UK, from which it draws inspiration: The Lafayette, The Slaughtered Lamb and King Tuts Wah Wah to name a few. The programme is a homage to the best of the UK’s live music scene and frequently books bands just before they explode. This year, The Dive welcomes British indie sleaze duo PleasureInc. – the band who’ve been selling out venues across the UK and Europe whose music melds indie and hip hop: sweeping up offshoot shards of punk, funk and dance music along the way. Sleeping Together deal in angst-ridden indie storytelling with a nod to Arctic Monkeys and The Strokes, Guildford-based five-piece Aqualine craft an explosive blend of alt-rock, shoegaze, grunge and hip-hop, King No-One are the genre-blurring indie band known for sharp songwriting, restless energy and emotionally charged live shows and Bleech 9:3 wield their 90s-infused heavy alt-grunge. Get ready to mosh.
The Jumpyard are in the business of keeping vibes sky-high with their mix of banging brass, booming basslines and belting beats. Programmed by chief Continental Drifter Chris Tofu of Global Local (also responsible for Glastonbury’s Shangri-La), this year Bristol B-boys The Scribes lay down their award-winning live hip hop beats with some impressive freestyle thrown in, Dogshow blast their live asymmetrical dance music from their ‘Dog Trolley’ in the centre of the crowd, (while dressed as poodles) and LED brass band Flash Bang Brass create a super-high energy, multisensory rave experience. Drum & Bass Gospel sees DJ Chris Tofu & Friends deliver a euphoric and high-energy set of hands-in-the-air bangers with gospel overtones.
The House of Sublime is the platform for queer-centric artistry from performers at the top of their game, featuring fierce, fabulous, boundary-pushing content from award-winning cabaret and burlesque to contemporary drag to high octane club nights. The House is open day and night for shock and awe, with a dancefloor that rarely rests. Making its debut this year, get ready to experience the rad, the queer and the uncategorisable in the Southbank Centre’s KUNSTY Takeover, uniting some of the most KUNSTY, boundary-pushing independent artists to thrill you. (“Kunst” is the German word for “art” of course). The Cocoa Butter Club return with their huge vibes and celebration of performers of colour, bringing brand new production SANKOFA – a show exploring Afro-futuristic ideas and building utopian worlds where time bends, straight lines disappear and bold new futures are imagined. Fatt Projects are the Birmingham full-fatt queer performance outfit home to the one and only Fatt Butcher, who will be presiding over ‘slaughterhouse disco’, the ABBAtoir (thank you for the music) and Big Meaty Game Show – with everyone’s favourite Beat The Meat.
The Club House: home to after-match glory and uproarious sing-alongs, is the capital of games and fun times. Drop in anytime to celebrate your wins, and to get stuck in to the wall-to-wall vibes and idiocy courtesy of a rolling gallery of hilarious and utterly ridiculous figures. Quizzes meet games meet DJ sets and Disco Ceilidhs, with some amazing music programming woven through the laughter. This year, they have snagged utterly incredible festival band Honeyfeet – who will also be doing a performance as The Breath – lead singer Ríoghnach Connolly’s other, equally mesmerising, band. The Playing Fields sprawl resplendent outside the Club House and will once again be peopled by cricket fanatics and the ambivalent as The Wilderness Cricket Match hosted by professional idiots Bearded Kitten returns for a record 14th year. Night Games – the neon-clad tournament that begins once the sun sets – returns.
The Long Table Banquets are the jewel in the feasting crown, decadent, frequently wild occasions where diners sit side by side in their finery, often pausing their meal for surprise performances, standing ovations or Mexican Waves. A four to five-course feast shared with future friends, chefs preparing your banquets this year: twice Michelin-starred Atul Kochhar: the Indian-born, British-based celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality and writer widely regarded as one of the most influential Indian chefs of all time. A pioneer of London’s ultra-hip, pared-back dining scene, New Zealand chef, caterer, and cookery writer Margot Henderson OBE runs caterers Arnold & Henderson and is the co-patron and chef of Shoreditch’s renowned Rochelle Canteen. Mike Davies is the chef director and owner of award-winning gastropub The Camberwell Arms and excellent rooftop bar Frank’s Cafe in Peckham. His book ‘Cooking For People’ reveals his insights into the art of hosting. He will be delivering a decadent Sunday Roast.
The Chef’s Table is the ultimate lakeside fine dining experience. Pull up to the table with a handful of others, sip fine wine and watch as the mastermind behind it all prepares your seven-course tasting menu. An all-star cast of chefs is soon to be announced.
The Forest Feast with Woodfired Canteen is a returning favourite – a magical long table banquet under the dappled sun of the Wychwood Canopy. This year, after sell-out success, there will be even more opportunities to delight in their menus shaped by fire, land and seasons, with their classic Forest Feast on Friday and Saturday, followed by a Woodfired Lazy Brunch perfect for Sunday morning. There will be two sittings per day. Flames crackle nearby as food is cooked slowly over open embers, scented with woodsmoke and wild herbs. This is an experience rooted in place: the gentle, rolling landscapes of the Oxfordshire countryside meet the raw, salt-edged spirit of the Cornish coast.
Talks and Debates capital The Forum hosts some of the greatest minds, experts, writers, movers and shakers on its – usually calm, always enlivening – central stage, taking on subjects from the serious to the surreal. This year, heading up the programme is British journalist and author of EmpireLand: How Modern Britain is Shaped by its Imperial Past Sathnam Sanghera, New Statesman’s Executive Editor, Oli Dugmore, screenwriter and poet, Roxy Dunn and law professor and author Kojo Koram.
The Sanctuary is the HQ for spiritual, mental and physical refurbishment and offers the full complement from the wellbeing spectrum. Yoga and meditation, sound healing and qigong meet barre ballet, aerobics, HIIT and much more. It’s also the perfect, calm and tranquil place to simply relax with friends, maybe over brunch or a smoothie at the Soul Food Cafe. The divine Lakeside Spa is your deluxe getaway, an escape from an escape, with gorgeous woodfired hot tubs bookable for individuals and group soaks. Champagne is optional… Wandering Wild Spa‘s wood-fired sauna offers a blissful restorative escape. Alternate your time in the sauna with invigorating cold plunges for maximum power.
Hub for artisans, costumiers, makers and crafters, The Makers Quarter caters for every artistic whim, from arts and screenprinting to fashion and design. New for this year, the Makers Market will host a uniquely curated lineup of artists selling their work as well as hosting a multitude of workshops and free drop-in sessions, creating a treasured hub for connections, artistry and sustainable consumerism.
The Family Field is packed full of games, antics, colourful characters and workshops, all set in a tranquil space amidst the trees. Keeping your young charges curious, creative and entertained this year, Tinkertown revive the lost art of den making and bring their tools and timber, inviting you to get creative with your build. 321 Let’s Have Fun provides all the ingredients for a kid’s dream party and Mortimer Nannies are on hand to keep the peace, with private bookings available.
Audi Presents Wilderness offers an infamously diverse programme of outdoor pursuits and activities in the wild, which sit alongside the world-class music and food. The Wychwood Forest is yours to explore via a range of disciplines, from Wild Medicine Walks to Forest Bathing to Wild Runs or simply reclining under one of the ancient trees. Cornbury Park is as much of a headliner as the programme. A deer park and nature reserve studded with thousand-year-old oaks, Lake Superior beckons for wild swims and boating – and perhaps on Lake Wilderness you’ll even enjoy a spot of SUP yoga.
More announcements are to come throughout the year.