Wimborne St Giles, Dorset | 20–23 August 2026
Wessex Student Rating: ★★★★☆ — 8/10
By Wessex Student contributors Oscar Thomson and Ethan
We Out Here Festival 2026 at St Giles Estate, Dorset.
Photo: [PHOTOGRAPHER / WESSEX STUDENT]
There are festivals where you arrive knowing exactly what you are going to see, spend the weekend chasing the biggest names on the poster and leave having pretty much got what you expected.
We Out Here is not one of those festivals.
Set in the beautiful grounds of St Giles Estate in Dorset, We Out Here Festival 2026 turned out to be one of those weekends where wandering off without much of a plan was often the best decision you could make.
For our Wessex Student team, there was an immediate sense on arrival that this was a much bigger and more varied festival than expected. After the trek towards the admission gates, the site opened into huge camping fields before funnelling towards a festival filled with colour, music, food, vintage clothing, bars and seemingly endless places to explore.
And that was before we had even properly discovered what was hidden among the trees.
A festival with a different vibe around every corner
One of We Out Here’s biggest strengths is that it doesn’t feel as though the entire festival has been designed around one massive stage.
There are different pockets of activity everywhere.
Move across one field and you might find live jazz or hip-hop. Keep walking and suddenly there is bass-heavy electronic music. Take another path and you can end up beside the water, watching people swimming or paddleboarding while others are doing yoga.
Despite the number of people on site, the main festival area rarely felt uncomfortably overcrowded. There was generally plenty of space around the stages, food stalls and main walkways, meaning you weren’t constantly battling through crowds simply to get from one place to another.
That made a huge difference. The festival feels big, but for most of the weekend it doesn’t feel oppressive.
There was also an unusually relaxed atmosphere. People seemed happy just to be there, whether dancing at a stage, eating with friends, sitting beside the water or wandering around discovering something completely unexpected.
The crowd was incredibly mixed too. This wasn’t a festival that seemed designed for one narrow age group or one particular type of music fan. There genuinely were all kinds of people there, and that diversity added considerably to the atmosphere.
It felt welcoming rather than cliquey.
The Bowl has to be experienced
Perhaps nowhere demonstrated We Out Here’s personality better than The Bowl.
Reaching it meant following a narrower fenced route away from some of the main festival areas before suddenly finding yourself looking down into a natural amphitheatre filled with people.
DJs performed from the bottom while a sea of festivalgoers moved together in front of them. Bass and drums seemed to travel through the whole space, with trees surrounding the crowd and a haze of dust hanging in the air.
It was one of those festival areas that photographs probably won’t completely explain.
You need to stand there.
At its busiest, The Bowl became almost hypnotic — the crowd moving together below while music echoed around the trees.
It was completely different to standing in front of a conventional festival main stage and became one of the defining sights of the weekend.
Thundercat delivers one of the weekend’s great moments
Musically, We Out Here is enormous in scope.
Jazz, soul, hip-hop, electronic music, club culture and sounds from across the world sit alongside each other rather than being separated into completely different audiences.
For anyone arriving without encyclopaedic knowledge of the line-up, that actually becomes part of the fun.
Thundercat was the standout performance of the weekend for Ethan and provided what was probably his favourite single festival moment.
His musicianship was phenomenal, but special praise has to go to the drummer, whose performance was simply ridiculous.
Thundercat had the stage presence to match the musicianship too. He knew exactly how to work the audience, and by the end the whole crowd seemed to be sharing the same energy.
The chants demanding one more song after the set finished summed it up. Thousands of people collectively wanting the night to continue is one of those simple festival moments that sticks in your memory.
HVYWGHT & The Outlook Orchestra: a performance you feel
Another highlight was HVYWGHT & The Outlook Orchestra.
Trying to neatly describe the performance almost misses the point.
There was a huge electronic and bass-driven energy to it, combined with the scale of a live orchestra, producing something that felt as important physically as it did musically.
It’s one of those sets where saying “I watched it” doesn’t really cover the experience.
You felt it.
That willingness to put very different musical worlds next to each other is exactly what makes We Out Here interesting.
Olive Jones and the joy of discovering something new
Olive Jones provided another change of pace.
Her voice immediately stood out, while her songwriting and lyrics brought a more intimate, emotional feeling to the weekend.
But one of the pleasures of We Out Here is discovering artists you hadn’t gone there intending to see.
Digable Planets were a perfect example.
Their laid-back alternative hip-hop sound immediately connected, particularly for anyone who enjoys artists such as A Tribe Called Quest.
They went from being relatively unfamiliar before the weekend to being one of those acts you leave intending to add to your playlists.
And that’s arguably one of the best things a festival can do.
Seeing artists you already love is great. Going home having discovered something completely new is even better.
When the music gets too much, disappear towards the water
We Out Here also understands something that some festivals forget: people occasionally need somewhere to stop.
One of Ethan’s favourite areas was the WOH Radio space, partly because of its central location and partly because it provided somewhere comfortable to relax when the sensory overload of a festival became a bit much.
But venture further and the atmosphere changed completely again.
Following a small path through the trees led away from the main stages towards the water and one of the most peaceful parts of the whole site.
People were swimming, others were out on paddleboards, and nearby were wellness areas offering everything from yoga and breathing exercises to various therapies.
At one point our weekend went from pounding festival stages to sitting barefoot in a yoga tent while breathing exercises were being talked through.
That probably tells you more about We Out Here than any list of performers could.
There is always something else happening.
The lake and waterside areas were particularly welcome during the warmer periods of the weekend. The weather was generally kind, with only brief rain, but tents became extremely hot when the sun came out.
A small camping fan will definitely be going onto the packing list next time.
The food might bankrupt you — but you’ll enjoy choosing it
If you like food, We Out Here is dangerous.
The range was excellent.
Jamaican, Tibetan, Spanish, Indonesian and Cajun food sat alongside burgers, sushi, jerk dishes, smoothies, açai bowls and plenty of vegetarian and plant-based choices.
Walking through the food areas when hungry was almost impossible because every few metres another smell made you change your mind.
For a festival, the variety was genuinely impressive.
Prices, unfortunately, were still festival prices.
Most of the actual food traders felt broadly in line with what you reluctantly expect to pay at a large UK music festival in 2026.
The on-site general store was another matter. Some of its prices felt excessive, particularly when campers may need to use it for basic items they have forgotten or run out of.
That’s somewhere we’d like to see more reasonable pricing in future years.
Vintage clothes everywhere
There were plenty of market stalls too, although this was one area where greater variety would improve the festival.
Vintage and alternative clothing fitted We Out Here’s character perfectly, and there was some great stuff available — our team didn’t exactly manage to walk away empty-handed.
But after a while there were a lot of clothes.
A broader selection of independent traders, artwork, student-friendly products, crafts and unusual festival stalls would give people more to explore between performances.
It’s hardly a major complaint, but considering how imaginative the rest of We Out Here is, the market area could be equally adventurous.
Now we need to talk about the toilets…
Unfortunately, festival paradise ended when you got back to parts of the campsite.
Toilets around the main arena were generally kept in reasonable condition.
The campsite toilets were considerably less charming.
They were cleaned, but with thousands of people using them they could deteriorate remarkably quickly.
“Stuff of nightmares” might sound dramatic until you’ve experienced festival toilets late at night.
We’re sticking with it.
Facilities overall therefore land somewhere around 6/10.
More toilet capacity — and potentially more frequent servicing at the busiest campsite locations — would make a noticeable difference.
And the campsite was simply too cramped
This was the biggest criticism of the weekend.
While the actual festival grounds generally dealt with the crowds extremely well, parts of the campsite felt far too tightly packed.
Once tents filled the available space, navigating between them became difficult.
Guy ropes crossed makeshift paths, tents seemed to merge into tents, and trying to negotiate everything after dark became something of an obstacle course.
It felt less like a campsite and more like a temporary town that had appeared overnight without anyone remembering to build the roads.
Safety in terms of other festivalgoers wasn’t a concern. The atmosphere remained friendly and neither of our reviewers felt personally unsafe.
The concern was physical space.
There were points where you were stepping across guy ropes and squeezing between tents while hoping nobody stumbled into yours.
If We Out Here can increase the amount of camping space available — or manage the spacing more effectively — it would remove by far the biggest negative from the weekend.
More places to simply sit would help too
Another relatively small change could make We Out Here even better: add more resting points.
There are areas where people naturally sit and relax, particularly around the water and radio spaces, but additional small seating and rest zones around the main site would be welcome.
That isn’t just about tired festivalgoers.
For people with disabilities, mobility difficulties or anyone who struggles to remain standing for long periods, having predictable places to stop between stages could substantially improve their experience.
Considering how thoughtful We Out Here already feels in many areas, it would be a natural improvement.
Organisation was impressively smooth
Away from the campsite issue, the event appeared extremely well organised.
Getting around the main site was relatively straightforward, the layout made sense after a little exploration and the large open spaces helped absorb the audience.
With so many stages, food areas and activities, We Out Here could easily have felt chaotic.
It rarely did.
Instead, it functions almost like a temporary village.
You gradually learn where everything is, find favourite routes and places to meet, and before long walking between completely different musical worlds feels perfectly normal.
The people might be We Out Here’s greatest asset
Perhaps the strongest compliment we can give the festival has little to do with its infrastructure.
The people were lovely.
There was an easy-going, relaxed atmosphere across the weekend that is difficult for organisers to manufacture.
People danced together, talked to strangers and generally seemed comfortable being themselves.
Oscar described it as the best festival he has attended so far and said he would recommend it to almost anyone.
Ethan, despite being much more critical of the campsite and toilets, still gave the weekend 8 out of 10 and would happily recommend it to others.
Put those two perspectives together and you probably have a pretty accurate assessment of We Out Here.
It isn’t perfect.
The camping needs work. The campsite toilets need attention. The general store could be cheaper, and we’d welcome some greater variety among the market stalls and more dedicated places to sit.
But none of those things managed to overshadow what was an excellent weekend.
Wessex Student verdict: ★★★★☆ — 8/10
We Out Here is a festival for people who enjoy discovering things.
You can arrive intending to watch one artist and somehow find yourself listening to an act you’ve never heard before, dancing in a woodland bowl, eating food from the other side of the world and finishing the afternoon beside the water.
The music is adventurous without making newcomers feel excluded.
The surroundings are beautiful.
The crowd is diverse and welcoming.
The food is excellent.
And there are enough strange little corners to make wandering around the site an activity in itself.
For students who only know the huge commercial festivals, We Out Here offers something refreshingly different. It still has big crowds and serious production, but somehow retains a feeling of community.
Our biggest advice?
Bring comfortable shoes, a fan for your tent, enough money for the food — and don’t make too many plans.
Some of the best parts of We Out Here are the things you weren’t looking for.
★★★★☆ — 8/10
Review based on the experiences of Wessex Student contributors Oscar Thomson Brighton Uni and Ethan Goring Bournmouth Uni, attending We Out Here Festival 2026.