Solstice at Wasing: the spirit of the 60s and 70s lives on in a West Berkshire woodland glade

Solstice at Wasing: A Rite of Summer
at the Sacred Glade, nestled within The Woodland on the Wasing Estate
on Friday, June 20

Review by JOHN GARVEY

FOR some of us, festivals like Glastonbury lost their soul as they grew from a gathering of the tribes to corporate, money-spinning behemoths.

Give thanks, then, that the spirit of the ‘60s and ‘70s lives on in a West Berkshire woodland glade.

In our cynical age, it's easy to mock the earnest spirituality of those times.

But the Solstice festival at Wasing was certainly an antidote to relentless consumerism and mobile phone doom scrolling.

Even if you don't subscribe to the hotchpotch of neo-druidic ceremony, yoga, meditation and chanting, the vibe is infectious.

Speakers set discreetly in the wooded sanctuary play soothing Amazonian icaros and woodwind tunes in quadrophonic sound.

Nearby a shamanic ceremony is taking place.

Okay, stop giggling at the back.

Like I said, it can be easy to dismiss all this as an irrelevant throwback.

And yet....how can you resist as everyone you pass on a candlelit woodland trail beams at you as if you're an old friend?

Candlelit pagan altars hanging with wickerwork are half hidden among gnarly rhododendron outcrops.

And there are no advertising banners screaming at you.

For the adventurous, there's wild swimming and sauna.

And then there's the live sounds.

The event featured some truly inspiring world music.

The hypnotic chanting of The Blue Lions - "a band of Sikh warriors belonging to the ancient lineage of the Warrior Akali Nihang Singhs" - performing spiritual Indian classical music under the stars was something to behold.

But for many of us, the highlight was a midnight set by Anoushka Shankar, daughter of the legendary sitar player Ravi Shankar, who introduced the West to Indian ragas at the Monterey festival in 1967.

Her music draws on both eastern and western traditions, with hints of flamenco and even psy-trance.

Using an array of effects pedals and loopers, accompanied by double bass, drums and woodwind, she conjured psychedelic soundscapes in front of a blazing fire among the towering trees.

Revellers were then invited to join a procession leading to a hilltop solstice sunrise ceremony overlooking the breathtakingly beautiful estate overlooking rolling fields in the dawn light.

It's tempting to believe you really can change the world, one person at a time.