Wilderness Festival to return despite noise concerns

Acts including Sophie Ellis-Bextor have previously played at the festival

A popular festival will return this summer, despite concerns about noise.

Wilderness Festival will take place at Cornbury Park, near Chipping Norton, after West Oxfordshire District Councillors approved its application for a premises licence.

Council approval came despite worries around traffic and noise.

The annual event began in 2011 and has been described as a festival of "wholesome hedonism".

Simon Taylor, who represented the festival at the council meeting, said: "We will work on our traffic management plan and noise management plan."

In relation to some objections, he added that to "compare this event with Glastonbury" was not helpful, and that debriefs from the 2023 festival were "very, very positive".

The event has been described as a festival of "wholesome hedonism"

The higher noise level allowed at the festival, which takes place from 1-4 August, will be 65db, with a lower level of noise permitted after 02:00 BST.

Cornbury Park, which comprises of roughly 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares) and was previously a royal hunting estate, was the original location for the Cornbury Music Festival.

Wilderness Festival is a camping festival which is described as "a four-day party like no other" and a "weekend of escapism, high jinks and wholesome hedonism".

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