Sat 13 Sep 2025 • Polly Shute
What you told us...
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Highlights of our Out & Wild 2025 Survey
Every year we run a survey after Out & Wild Festival.
It's really important to get your honest feedback, so we can continue to make Out & Wild Festival the best event we can, and one that aligns with our values of connections, community, inclusivity and safety.
We always share the highlights of the results as transparency matters to us.
Thank you to all those who took part, we really appreciate it.
About our attendees
Our results showed that whilst the majority of attendees identify as lesbian, there is a growing diversity of others who attend.
We know that we also see a small but still significant amount of those who identify as trans or non-binary attending.
We want to embrace that and also reflect it in the acts we have across the weekend.
Over 25% of those who attend identify as having a disability. We will continue to have the buggy next year (despite having a more accessible site). We will invest in more accessible facilities at the campsite. We will also focus more talks and workshops around mental health and neurodiversity.
As per previous years, over 30% of attendees come solo. We got great feedback about the pre-fest and at fest Meet & Mingles, so will continue these. And we are looking to grow the UK wide Regional Leads we have. Plus we have now launched more retreats and year round events.
One key area we know we want to improve is the amount of people who attend from the global majority. We will have more workshops and Meet & Mingles focused on the latter and focus on having more acts and leads who identify as coming from global majority.
What made you attend?
The main drivers around attendance were (as in previous years) the fact it was for LGBTQIA+ women, a place to meet like-minded others and the overall offer.
We will continue to focus on the overall offer, ensuring we have a good variety of acts and workshops.
Our Communications
As a small festival we do not have big budgets for communication. We are super stoked to see, as in previous years, so many people returning (including lots who have come all 4 years!).
Facebook is a key tool for us to communicate and we have over 5000 of you on our private groups (Out and Wild Festival Community and Out and Wild Events). In fact we have grown our overall social communities by over 30% year on year.
Our regular Sunday email is well read, and we are going to now have a mid week email which focuses on the pop up events and retreats we are growing.
What did you love?
You really appreciated the variety of wellness activities, and for 2026 we will be bringing back some of your faves as well as some fresh new leads. In fact we have been inundated with new requests to run sessions.
This includes workshops focused around key areas of interest, like neurodiversity and menopause.
We got great feedback on the comedy this year, and we want to extend the focus on this area.
You also loved the crafts, like pottery and wood whittling, so we will bring back and are looking at new sessions like crochet/knit.
We are going to focus on more upbeat music and established bands and solo artists on our main stage. But will create a space for new and up coming talent to play.
As always the Silent DJ sets went down and storm, and we will have back for ALL 3 nights now. You also loved having other options for evening entertainment, so expect to see more variety in 2026, including bars, DJ sets and campfires.
You appreciated the good facilities on the campsite, especially the plumbed in toilets and showers. And we will be adding extra portaloos at the back of the campsite.
Safety and feeling safe came up a lot in the survey. We do pride ourselves on creating a safe and supportive space. in 2026 we want to extend this by having safeguarding and mental health experts available to those who may need them.
We know many of you are not campers, so we are pleased to offer on site accommodation again and glamping.
What could we improve on?
We know the site was too spread out, and we missed having a central hub/festival village. So that was a key reason for moving. For 2026 there will be a natural hub for most of the activities. This will also be where are info desk is, as well as treatments and vendors.
Most of the other spaces we use will be a short walk from the hub, and there will be no steep walkways to navigate!
We did not get navigation right, and we know that caused some frustration, especially on Friday. So we will get it sorted for 2026, and are really pleased to have an amazing map illustrator volunteer. We will have maps and programmes to download as well as large versions across the site.
We will also make sure the programmes are agreed a lot earlier in advance so you have plenty of time to plan your long weekend. And we will be putting more time in between activities so you can have breaks, whether that is grabbing a coffee, chatting to someone you have met or just time to reflect.
The campsite needed more planning in advance, so we will be on site from the Monday before the festival next year to mark out spaces. We are also investing in paid staff as well as volunteers to support set up, especially as we expect 1200 plus attendees.
You wanted to see and enjoy more of North Devon. So we will be having surfs and swims at the nearby beach. We are already working with companies to book these.
And we have made sure you can stay on longer if you are camping or bringing a van. And if there is appetite we hope to organise some hikes and beach visits with whoever stays on after the 6th July.
We had a few comments about men on site. We know some of this was directed at our trans inclusion stance. This is not up for debate.
We also have identifying men as part of our team, and welcome their allyship and support.
If you have any ideas or feedback for us, please get in touch via info@outandwild.co.uk
