Shangri-La
Rest, rave, reconnect, question everything.
Something special is taking root in the south east corner of Glastonbury Festival as Shangri-La, now in its 18th year, presents The Wilding.
A new landscape of possibility is emerging, seeded with imagination, rooted in resistance, and fertilised with rebellion. Here, nature is rightfully placed centre stage. Basslines permeate the soil beneath your feet, while art grows wild, ideas are propagated and radical joy flourishes.
Stumble upon sculptures sprouting from the soil, sit in the shade of curious structures, or simply get lost in the undergrowth… whatever path you take, dig beneath the surface.
Through bold musical programming and radical creativity, discover a forest of installations, sculptures, hideouts and tiny worlds. Get down, get dirty, and let’s plant seeds of change together.
GALLERY SHANGRI-LA PRESENTS: THE WILDING AV SHOW
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.
GALLERY 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.
GALLERY 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 Time to Think 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 Nettles, by Andy Doig whilst 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.
GALLERY 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.
GALLERY Outdoor Art
Shangri-La’s outdoor art gallery is filled with sculptures that invite you to immerse yourself in nature, as you think, discuss, debate and play.
Shangri-La Commission: Threads of Resistance
Threads of Resistance is a partnership between Amnesty International UK and Shangri-La Glastonbury. This striking, interactive willow tree, designed and created in collaboration with Women That Fabricate (WTF), will inspire people to take action through art, performance, storytelling and community.
The metal sculpture is strong and powerful, symbolising endurance, life and shelter. Throughout the festival, hundreds of ribbons will be added to its branches with messages of hope and solidarity, symbolising the way individual acts of resistance can create a collective movement for change.
Accompanied by a powerful, original poem written and performed by poet and actor Caitlin O’Ryan, the installation celebrates how far we’ve come and reflects on the work that remains in the ongoing fight for gender equality.
Featuring pop-up music and spoken-word performances on Thu, Fri and Sat between 2-7pm, including Kate Nash, Nova Twins, Anita Rani, Nabihah Iqbal, Jen Brister and many more.
Pop-up music and spoken-word performances on Thu, Fri and Sat between 2-7pm.
Billboards and Hoardings
Swapping the iconic graphic billboards for stunning photography, the site is transformed by mirroring the natural world. Large scale prints of photographer Ellie Davies’ Stars, Fires and Between the Trees series’ will centre you in the forest, whilst specially commissioned work by Alex Kurunis takes over Nomad, and Red Rotkopf lends his work for the cause.
Darren Cullen brings us the Anti-Bird Bird House, Hostile architecture for a hostile garden. Bring the philosophy of urban planning to your own back yard with this bird-spike adorned bird house and the Bug Hotel, a five star hotel for bugs big and small. Facilities include wooden tubes and crevices to hibernate, reproduce or just hang out.
Yinka Ilori: In Plants We Trust | March 2021
Yinka Ilori’s installation offers a quiet but powerful reminder of nature’s presence as a vital source of healing, memory, and connection. In a glorious, energetic environment he constructs a space of reverence—elevating plants not as decoration, but as vital sources of healing, memory, and connection. Originally commissioned by Alter Projects.
Mewa by toyStudio
Mewa is a sculptural pavilion formed from a series of wooden ribs arranged around a central seating area – a space for rest, reflection, and manifestation. Originally exhibited at the House of Wisdom in Sharjah, UAE, for the 25th anniversary of the Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival, it features mashrabiya-inspired patterns that filters light by day and glows with LEDs by night, casting intricate shadows and offering a rsda of calm amid the festival energy.
Shangri-La Commission: Whispers of the Wood by Broken Hartist
This piece invites you to connect. Two sculptural trees, carved from reclaimed wood, stand apart in the field but quietly linked by way of a vintage telephone upon each tree. As the voices of strangers, friends, and lovers travel through the private line, soft pulses of light ripple through the trees’ branches.
Shangri-La Commission: Bug Rave by Kestra Laurent, an a-n artist.
This piece only works if you work together. Bounce the light from the snap dragon flower towards a disco ball, then make it spin until the light shines on us all.
Secret Sightings
Look out for Underground, Chris and Spike Hopewell’s mini secret sculptures that can be found throughout the field, Edible Bus Stop’s BloomBastic mirror tiled bombs, Dr D’s Sinking Feelings/Sinking Signs, and Greenaway and Greenaway’s roaming projections that explore Chaos in Nature. Also, if you see a bush, and you think maybe it moved, well, maybe it did. Who knows?