A New Breed Of Festival
Run by a local collective of promoters, designers and musicians, Wild Paths embodies the fervent independent spirit of Norwich and its creative community. Now in its 6th year the festival has become a staple part of the regional (and national) festival calendar, perfect for discovering new talent and catching intimate sets from the Glastonbury head-liners of tomorrow!
By Ben Street, Founder Wild Paths Festival
It feels a little odd to be thinking about October and autumnal events in the middle of a hot summer season but Wild Paths Festival is on the horizon! The much loved multi-venue music festival returns after a two-year hiatus, bringing over 150 bands, artists, DJs and delegates to our fine city and hosting events at 15 unique venues all in the heart of Nozza.
This year sees the WP team partnering with a number of new spaces to deliver some very special shows spread across churches, a skate-park, record stores, a secret jazz den, a cinema and a hidden street. It’s an eclectic mix of live music, talks, pop-up bars, food trucks, late night jazz jams and so much more. Because there’s so much to wrap your head around we’ve provided a 101 guide of artists and spotlight events not to miss and food and drinks to be sampled!
Photograph by Andrew Gooding
It’s hard to pick out a handful of artists from such a jam-packed line-up but I’d definitely recommend catching Getdown Services on Thursday at St Laurence Church and JGrrey on Saturday there. Both acts have received a lot of critical acclaim with the former topping Rolling Stone’s ‘Best Acts of Great Escape’ list! A newcomer to the Wild Paths map is the stunning Octagon Chapel, showcasing some of the best soulful, jazzy, folky and alt-indie artists. From the smooth soulful jazz-tinged sounds of South Londoner BINA. to Brown Horse, Norwich’s own guitar-driven 90s alt-rock band, channelling the folk and country sounds of the 70s. You’d also better make sure you catch Olive Jones here, a London-based singer, songwriter, Olive draws on soul, blues and alt-folk to produce her sumptuous melody driven music. Other highlights here includes talented multi-instrumentalist and producer Quinn Oulton and Norwich native Maya Law whose expansive sound navigates through neo-soul, folk and jazz-infused R&B.
For all you alt-indie heads make sure to catch Picture Parlour with their cinematic, electrifying rock n roll and Adult DVD delivering chorus centric indie infused with acid-house floor fillers. The latter will be headlining the iconic pizza parlour, dive bar venue Voodoo Daddy’s on the Saturday night of the festival. If you’ve attended Wild Paths before you’ll know all about our late-night jazz jams in a medieval church! Head to St Laurence at the top of St Benedict’s Street to catch our very own Voodoos Jazz Club band and a host of special guests playing deep into the night on Friday and make sure you’re back there Saturday night when we invite are all female + non-binary hosts Peng Femme Jam up from London to curate an amazing night of improv, free jazz, soul, disco and dancing!
For those who like their music on the heavier side, we’ve gone and turned the dial up to 11 and invited a selection of heavier bands to play at a skate-park in a church! Local heroes Other Half are joined by the queer-core, savage punk sounds of Shooting Daggers and innovative Bristol band Knives at St Peter’s on King Street.
Here’s a handful of other acts we strongly recommend: Mom Tudie, Len Blake, Daudi Matsiko, Lime Garden, Home Counties, Oreglo, KEG, Sarah Isabella, LFay and O.
You can get in all of the action by grabbing a festival pass - but make sure you peruse some of the spotlight, pre-party and after-party events too - including access to a very special visual album screening and live band spectacle at Cinema City on Friday and a host of after-parties including an all night, worldwide musical exploration from vinyl queen Donna Leake! Head to the Wild Paths ticket page to grab your festival pass and add-ons (day passes also available). There’s a full line-up and a scheduler on the website and an app on the way, so get planning and make the most of your Wild Paths adventure!
Keep an eye out for the delicious ‘Into The Wild’ IPA, the official festival beer brewed with our partners at Duration and grab a Wild Paths mezze full of falafel and fritters from our friends at Moorish - there’s a ton of collaborations this year with some amazing local businesses!
Book your Wild Paths tickets here
@wildpathsfestival | wildpaths.co.uk
This interview was published as part of a paid collaboration within our printed newspaper.