Saturday, day three. Wilderness is in full swing. The festival has acquired its own rhythm: Cornbury Park alive from morning until late, with music spilling across the estate and something happening in almost every corner. The weekend’s biggest musical moments were still to come, and Saturday’s programme was arguably the most musically ambitious yet.
The day began with The House & Garage Orchestra, an inspired marriage of live instrumentation and club culture, bringing the energy of a packed dancefloor into a festival setting. Chloe Qisha followed, with her contemporary take on pop and r&b, while Mica Millar brought a rich, soulful voice to the afternoon.
There was a pleasingly broad sweep to the day. SLAG and Gingerella added their own distinctive personalities, while Saint Etienne offered something altogether more polished and timeless. Their elegant blend of electronic pop, dance music and beautifully crafted songwriting superb, their songs carrying just enough melancholy beneath the sophistication.
Then Soulwax changed the temperature completely. The Belgian brothers have spent decades dismantling the boundaries between rock and electronic music, and their live show remains an extraordinary exercise in controlled mayhem. Drums, guitars, synths and relentless beats collide with an intensity that makes standing still almost impossible.
And then came Scissor Sisters. Their return was one of the festival’s great communal moments. Two decades after “Take Your Mama” and “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ ” became fixtures of pop culture, Jake Shears and the band brought their flamboyant combination of disco, glam, funk and pop back to a crowd more than ready for it.
The songs have lost none of their exuberance, and neither has the band’s capacity for theatricality. This was not a polite exercise in nostalgia: it was a full-blooded celebration, with the audience singing along, moving and embracing the unabashed joy of it all.
Away from the headline stages, Saturday’s soundtrack continued deep into the night. Yousef, Mango Django, Crazy P, Delilah and Ella Knight provided a succession of sets across the site’s clubs and dance spaces, ensuring there was always another reason to stay out a little longer.
It is one of the pleasures of Wilderness that a major performance doesn’t necessarily mark the high point of the evening. A DJ set in a smaller space can suddenly become the place everyone wants to be.
The festival’s culinary programme deserves equal attention. John Chantarasak, Atul Kochhar and Douglas McMaster were among the chefs bringing considerable expertise and imagination to the weekend. Wilderness has elevated festival food into something approaching a parallel programme: meals are destinations in themselves.
Another major musical moment on Sunday came from The Last Dinner Party. Their baroque, theatrical approach to rock is almost tailor-made for a festival stage, and their performance had the grandeur and drama to match. They are a band who understand the visual possibilities of performance as much as the musical ones, bringing a sense of occasion to the afternoon.
By Sunday, the music took on a different significance…
Jamie Cullum filled the Audi Haven for his “Jazz Unplugged” set. US trio Say She She were a delight. But at the heart of the day was Annie Lennox’s SISTERS, her specially curated programme created in partnership with The Circle, the global feminist organisation she co-founded. It was a fitting addition to Wilderness, bringing together performance, activism and Lennox’s long-standing commitment to women’s rights.
The SISTERS concept grew from Lennox’s 2025 concert at the Royal Albert Hall, where she brought together musicians, poets and activists to raise awareness and funds for The Circle. That event featured artists including Celeste, Nadine Shah and Ríoghnach Connolly, alongside poet and activist Rakaya Fetuga and photographer and activist Misan Harriman, with Clara Amfo hosting. Lennox’s daughter Lola also joined her, while Paloma Faith and Hozier appeared during the finale.
Over four days Wilderness had presented an extraordinary range of sounds and approaches: indie and electronic music, soul and pop, brass and lovers rock, garage, house, disco, gospel, hip-hop and experimental sounds. The impressive thing was not simply the range but the confidence with which it was programmed.
The DJs were crucial to that sense of discovery. The smaller rooms and late-night sets gave the festival a second musical life after the major performances had finished.
And then, of course, there was the extraordinary setting in which all this took place.
What makes Wilderness so successful is that it never demands that you take a particular route through it. It can be extravagant, cultured, and indulgent while still having a conscience. There is room for exquisite food, serious ideas, physical wellbeing, and completely unrestrained musical pleasure.
At Wilderness, Annie Lennox brought Ríoghnach Connolly, Becky Sikasa, Benedict Wong, Deborah Frances-White and chart star Jessie Ware to the main stage, creating a gathering that felt deliberately broader than a conventional guest appearance.
Connolly, the Irish singer, flautist and member of Honeyfeet, was particularly well suited to the occasion, bringing folk, soul and groove together with her highly individual voice. She had previously performed alongside Lennox at the Royal Albert Hall SISTERS event.
Scottish neo-soul and alt. r& b artist Becky Sikasa brought her own contemporary musical sensibility, while Benedict Wong, the British actor known for roles including Doctor Strange, The Martian and 3 Body Problem, added a different kind of presence to the gathering.
Deborah Frances-White is a London-based comedian, author and screenwriter, with British and Australian citizenship. Deborah hosts the podcasts “Global Pillage” and “The Guilty Feminist”, and she wrote the 2018 comedy film “Say My Name”.
The result was an afternoon that felt celebratory rather than solemn. Lennox’s message was clear, but the music remained at its centre. There was an understanding that songs can carry ideas and solidarity without becoming a lecture, that a festival audience can be moved emotionally while also being encouraged to think about the world beyond Cornbury Park.
It was an especially powerful moment in the context of Lennox’s own career. From Eurythmics and her extraordinary solo work to decades of campaigning around women’s rights and humanitarian causes, she has used her public platform to connect music with activism. SISTERS brings those two strands together in a way that feels both personal and purposeful.
Most importantly, Wilderness doesn’t take itself too seriously — but it takes music very seriously indeed. That seriousness is there in the variety and quality of the programming, in the willingness to put established artists alongside emerging ones, and in the sheer variety of musical experiences available across the weekend. Wilderness trusts its audience to make connections for themselves, and that trust pays off.
The best memories are rarely the ones you carefully schedule. They are the moments that catch you unprepared: the song that suddenly means more in a field than it ever did through headphones; a performance that is much more powerful than anticipated; a DJ who keeps a room moving long after you intended to leave; or the moment thousands of people are singing the same song.
By Sunday night, Wilderness 2026 had delivered an almost absurd abundance of those moments. Wilderness doesn’t just provide a weekend away. For a few days, it makes an alternative way of living seem entirely plausible — one involving excellent music, exceptional food, beautiful surroundings, curious minds, good company and dancing, dancing, dancing. It is a rather wonderful place to be.
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Do check out our coverage of day 1 & 2
Editor’s note: There are no photographs of Annie Lennox in our review, because she did not allow the assembled accredited press photographers to take her photograph.
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