UK festival Wild Fields salvaged

Wild Fields, a new festival planned by ATC Group and the team behind Norwich-based multi-venue festival Wild Paths, has been salvaged.

Originally, the festival was slated to be a three-day, 10,000-capacity camping event at Raynham Estate in North Norfolk.

However, organisers announced in February that due to “escalating production costs and poor initial sales” they were battling to reconfigure the festival.

Now, Wild Fields has been revived as a two-day city gathering, set to take place at Earlham Park in North Norfolk.

Ezra Collective, SBTRKT, Kae Tempest, Sampa The Great, Squid, Jalen Ngonda, Nubya Garcia, Jeshi, Priya Ragu and Yazmin Lacey are among the acts set to perform at the festival, which is a signatory of Keychange’s 50/50 pledge.

“It was a really tough couple of weeks trying to navigate the cancellation and then pivoting and reformatting the event at a new location”

“It was a really tough couple of weeks trying to navigate the cancellation and then pivoting and reformatting the event at a new location. We had to lean heavily on the support from local institutions, partners and our community,” says director Ben Street,

“Wild Fields now feels like a bit of a unicorn as I think we’re one of the only new festivals of our size (5,000 +) happening this year. I’m just glad we could find a way to deliver the festival and bring the event back to Norwich. We’ve been running festivals and events here for the past six years and with the site being so close to the city-centre we’ve seen a much better response, but it’s still been a real challenge to engage audiences.”

Street will work on the festival with ATC Group chief executive Adam Driscoll, who is also the former co-CEO of MAMA Group and director of Vision Nine.

In addition to live music, Wild Paths will feature climate debates and workshops, industry panels, live street art and regional food offerings.

The “socially conscious” festival will also focus on green initiatives and sustainability, working with travel partners, waste management teams, merch providers and power suppliers.

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