The Vintage Festival today announces that, for its 2012 event, it will move to be a guest of the award-winning Wilderness in Oxfordshire on the weekend of 10th, 11th and 12th August. 

Following lower than expected ticket sales amidst a summer of much cultural competition, with regret, this year’s Vintage Festival is sadly not able to operate as a stand-alone event. However, a fitting alternative has been agreed with the organisers of Wilderness Festival who have today offered to host an intimate and authentic incarnation of Vintage, as part of their own celebration within their Cornbury Park site in Oxfordshire. 

Existing Vintage ticket holders will be offered the chance to exchange their festival tickets or claim a refund via the vintage website. 

The Vintage experience at Wilderness will give ticket holders the opportunity to enjoy the diverse entertainment on offer from these two award-winning festivals. Two of Vintage Festival’s flagship nightclubs, The Torch Club and Soul Casino, will transfer to a dedicated Vintage area within the Wilderness site. This will be the place to learn the dances, watch catwalk shows, visit art exhibitions and vehicle pageants or indulge in hair and beauty makeovers, hands on creative workshops and all the wonderful vintage clothing on sale. 

Wayne Hemingway, Co Founder of The Vintage Festival says: 

“Delivering something as ambitious as Vintage is a real challenge and there have been some seemingly insurmountable barriers, with economic and climatic hurdles being at the fore. However, we are resourceful and creative and with Wilderness kindly letting us “lodge” with them this year, the show still goes on. In the three years since starting a concept with this breadth of content we have experienced hiccups along the way but have always triumphed in the face of adversity and still left thousands of people with wonderful memories of an uplifting weekend. We hope you will join us this year and help us create another magical experience.” 

Tim Harvey, one of the Wilderness Festival organisers, adds:

“We are delighted to be able to open our arms to a fellow unique event in its time of need. We are lucky enough to know that this year’s Wilderness is firmly on course to be a great success and, for us, Vintage will be another spectacular addition to a programme already brimming with originality and ambition. It’s going to be a great honour to work with Vintage in making this ‘festival within a festival’ a genuinely inspiring alternative.” 

As well as safeguarding the key values of The Vintage Festival, an event that celebrates music, fashion, film, art, design and the ‘Best of British’ in all its glory, festival-goers can also enjoy the culinary and cultural delights of the Wilderness program. This year’s impressive Wilderness festival includes a Future Cinema festival takeover of Bugsy Malone, long table banquets from chefs Yotam Ottolenghi, Valentine Warner and Fergus Henderson + St. John and a inspired music line-up including Rodrigo y Gabriela performing with the C.U.B.A orchestra, Wilco, Spiritualized and Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings. There will be talks and debates from leading cultural institutions - The School of Life, Intelligence Squared, Idler Academy and Oxford University, a lakeside spa complete with champagne bar and wood-fired hot tubs. Festival-goers will also be able to immerse themselves in Late Night Parties from the sold-out Secret Garden Party, Old Vic Tunnels Midnight Masked Ball in the Wychwood Forest, Boom Boom Club and Rumpus and not forgetting forest walks, horse-riding, fly-fishing lessons, star gazing with The Royal Observatory, cocktail mixology workshops, overnight adventures with the Bushcraft Company and so much more. 

For details and to buy tickets for Wilderness HERE