The WILDING AV SHOW & PoLINATIONS TREES
The Shangri-La Stage will be surrounded and protected by the towering 40ft PoliNations Trees, originally created by Trigger, and now reimagined to explore themes of love, loss and land. This new arena will bring a raw and defiant energy soundtracked by Shangri-La’s most eclectic, boundary-pushing lineup yet.
The main stage will stop three times each night for The Wilding AV Show, a powerful, immersive experience that transforms the sculptural trees into living canvases, mapping our deep, evolving relationship with nature through breathtaking visuals. Designed by FRAY Studio, projected by Universal Pixels,with powerful stories and a rich musical score from Echoic Audio featuring west country vocals by Rider Shafique, Ngaio and Gardna on vocals, and performance from queer, inclusive collective Shade Cartel.
THE GROW ROOM
The Grow Room is a living room for rebels; a contemporary greenhouse structure housing a bar and radical print studio. Using letterpress, risograph, collage and imagination, art and hope will pollinate in this hothouse of ideas, that will grow and evolve as the work produced becomes the fabric of the space.
Its energy comes directly from the sun, and the vibe is from Gen R’s nature restoring Jukebox. You put your money in, the music spreads joy and the funds sow wildflower seeds of hope.
Workshops and inspiration from Kennard Phillipps, Giant Triplets, House Of Jo, Page Masters, Black Lodge Press and other artists from the DIY print and zine scene.
THE ALLOTMENTS
Allotments are some of the last free places in the UK to be truly autonomous - where different rules seem to apply, and where wisdom is shared freely.. These places of quiet revolution are where seeds of hope and self-sufficiency are sown.
Shangri-La is fertile ground, and The Wilding’s Allotments are a contemporary take on shared communal space, featuring live performance and installations from 20 multi disciplinary artists and activists.
The 12 allotments include The Anarchist Gardeners Club, by Black Lodge Press, where growing a garden is a radical act, and Fieldworks, a communal space inspired by crop circles by the artist-technologist Coral Manton and Shangri-La has created the Palestine Solidarity Garden and the Beanfield 40 Year Memorial
Tat Vision’s Teleshrubbies is a surreal, mobile installation that explores our relationship with nature through play, and The Meadow of Possibilities is a wild intervention and quiet installation experience, created by Rachael Taylor in the form of a mini meadow.
Foka Wolf and Reel News’s rewilded urban landscape evokes the historic battle for the commons. The Hive, by Meg Lane, Paula Palazon and Maria Wiecko, is a visual tribute to the bee, the importance of communal living and a call to action to rewild our cities.
The Bed of Nettle is an installation by Andy Doig, and Return to Earth by Lizzie French and Lorcan Staniland is an immersive living sculpture that reflects on the process of death and decay.
a-n and Shangri-La have teamed up once more to invite talented, up and coming artists who have never shown at a festival to create a bespoke work for the field.Slave Song, an allotment by Rider Shafique, is a response to some of the earliest written interpretations of songs used by enslaved peoples labouring on plantations in the Caribbean, whilst Grow Up by India Rafiqi is a living piece of graffiti.
VENUES AND PERFORMANCE
The Wilding revisits Shangri-La’s immersive venues and theatrical experiences of years gone by, and the very special wonderment, awe and real life joy that comes from being open hearted, and saying yes to the unexpected.
Join the daily procession on its journey through the field; an experience like no other, led by Boss Morris, a renegade Morris side described as ‘wild, colourful, vibrant, urgent, and entirely relevant to the times we live’.
Other performances include The Lorefire, by Tootles and Nibs - a traveling campfire and costumed procession, with an interactive musical introduction that mixes traditional folk music with electronic beats, as ancient and modern folktales are told around the fire and the community leads the story.
Choose the right path and you’ll discover Realm, a theatrical experience where the guardians of the hostile will be your guide to forgotten folklore characters and the magical kinetic sculptures of William Darrell await you.
Elsewhere, Sonic Bloom, a partnership between Kaye Dunnings, Sounds Right and Edible Bus Stop, is a secret space, where you can come and sit with the music of Mother Nature. After all, 4.6 billion years ago, a star was born, isn’t it about time we listened to her?
The Rhizosphere, by Bailes + Light, is a venue with workshops that focuses on the ecological relationships in soil and human relationships to land, and in the Hope Garden, by Adele Perrot cartoonish animation meets and melts into reality. can write about the Gallery here…