In a dramatic shift from previous years, Shangri-La—Glastonbury Festival’s legendary field of counterculture and alternative music— is completely reinventing itself under the theme of ‘The Wilding’.
After two years parodying consumerism through the ‘Everything Must Go’ concept (which we explored in detail in last year’s special report), creative director Kaye Dunnings and her team are taking that slogan to its logical conclusion… by starting entirely from scratch.
“When we said Everything Must Go, we meant it; everything has gone,” explains Kaye. “This is a chance to start over and make everything new and exciting. And while ‘Everything Must Go’ was about critiquing capitalism and pointing out the problems with it, this new era will be about giving some answers and sharing solutions.”
In short, this will be the most significant transformation in Shangri-La’s 18-year history, with almost nothing returning from previous years in the same form. “We’ve reset our communications, too,” adds Kaye. “This year, we want to celebrate one-on-one, real-life and analogue connections.”
That means, for example, that rather than announcing The Wildings on social media, they sent out hand-crafted packages to press and artists, featuring beautiful limited-edition risograph posters and packets of sunflower seeds—an obvious yet powerful metaphor for the ‘Wilding’ theme.
The 100 limited edition Shangri-La Line-up packages were all handmade in the South West, riso-printed by Josh at 16 Tonne Press, and feature artwork designed by Rosie Lee Wilson. The paper was made by Bristol-based paper company Arboreta Papers and is 160gsm recycled and acid-free.
And that’s not all. From now on, Shangri-La will exclusively be sharing announcements and images via a new mailing list titled Sign up for joy!. The idea is to allow festival goers to stay up-to-date with developments in a calm and curated way, far from the noise and chaos of online life.
A new direction
All this demonstrates how this year’s transformation is far more than just an annual refresh: it’s more of a prototype for a whole new, multi-year vision for Shangri-La.
“We’ve been planning this new direction for the last two years,” Kaye reveals. “It’s almost like a pilot episode, an introductory year because the festival will be taking a year off in 2026 to let the farmland recover. Then, in 2027, we’ll go really deep into the themes we’re covering this year.”
What the new Shangri-La will actually look like is a closely guarded secret, although the organisers will be drip-feeding hints and clues over the next few months. That said, there are a few things that Kaye can share at this stage.
Seeking discovery in a connected world
Firstly, the reimagining of Shangri-La will partly be informed by how visitors have interacted with the space in the past. Kaye notes that many people often bypass, and may not even see, important elements as they rush between the loudest venues.
“So this time around, we’ve redesigned the site so there’ll be multiple options and choices for people to take,” she explains.
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