All star line up announced for Gone Wild Festival 2021

Exeter will play host to an all star group of adventurers, explorers, TV personalities and sports heroes next Summer, as Gone Wild Festival announces special guest speakers to appear alongside Bear Grylls.

The inspiring group, including Steve Backshall and Nicola Adams, all have amazing stories to share about their remarkable lives and their tales of triumph over adversity. Gone Wild Festival guests will get a once in a lifetime chance to hear these stories face to face and take part in workshops led by world leading experts.

The line up of speakers and workshop leaders includes;

Steve Backshall MBE - host of BBC show Deadly 60, BAFTA award winning explorer, naturalist writer and television presenter.

Steve will be giving a talk and taking part in an interactive Q&A session.

Steve said: “I’m super excited to be joining Bear Grylls at this incredible event that will inspire so many families to experience adventure together. I’m going to be telling everyone about my adventures, the wildlife I’ve encountered and I may bring some creepy crawly friends along. I went to University in Exeter and only have very fond memories of Devon, so I can’t wait to go back and join in the fun!”

Nicola Adams OBE - Officially Great Britain’s most successful female boxer of all time, the only female boxer in the history of the sport to have won every major title; Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth.

Nicola will be giving a talk and taking part in an interactive Q&A session.

Nicola said:  “Any event that encourages families to get active and get outdoors, particularly after the past year we've had, gets my vote! When I heard about the concept of Gone Wild, I knew I wanted to be involved and I can’t wait to get down to Exeter and get stuck in"

Mollie Hughes – Youngest and first English woman to summit Everest on both the North and South Side. She is also the youngest woman to ski solo to the South Pole. Mollie will deliver crevasse crossing and pulk (sled) pulling lessons along with other ‘how to survive in Antarctica’ workshops.

Mollie said: “I am super excited to participate in the first Gone Wild Festival and look forward to sharing my Everest and Antarctica expedition tales and techniques with the attending families.  This is a seriously inspiring event that will provide young children with a real taste of adventure … something I would have loved to have attended as a child.”

Ayo Akinwolere – Blue Peter presenter Ayo Akinwolere has set two world records for swimming in one of the deepest stretches of water on the planet. He is the first person to swim across the deepest part of the 8,000 metre deep Palau Trench, and now holds the record for the deepest location for an open water swim.

Ayo will be delivering open water swimming workshops.

Dr George McGavin – Star of the BBC’s One Show as their wildlife expert, well known entomologist, author, explorer and TV presenter Dr George McGavin will be leading  wildlife workshops and walks.

Dwayne Fields - Born in Jamaica, Dwayne came to the UK at the age of six. After getting wrapped up in street gangs in London he was the victim of both knife and gun crime. After a life threatening incident Dwayne made the decision to change his life, and became the first black Briton to walk over 400 miles to the North Pole - one of many ensuing adventures. Dwayne will be giving an inspiring talk about his experiences.

Patrick Aryee – Biologist and presenter of the BBC documentary series Super Senses: The Secret Power Of Animals.
Patrick will be delivering wildlife and adventure workshops.

Rhiane Fatinikun – After observing a lack of diversity in the hiking community, Rhiane founded Black Girls Hike, and has led hikes with hundreds of people all over the UK.
Rhiane will be leading hikes around the stunning Powderham estate.

The Main Stage will be hosted by The Turner Twins on Saturday night. These remarkable twins have undertaken expeditions and feats of endurance in the name of science, using their matching DNA to test the limits of the human body.

This inspiring line up of speakers and workshop leaders will of course be joined by Bear Grylls.

Gone Wild Festival will take place in August 2021, at Powderham Castle. As well as the unique opportunity for families to take part in these once in a lifetime workshops and hear these explorers and adventurers tell their inspiring stories, they can also watch headline bands Kaiser Chiefs and Razorlight and more on the music stages.

Families can get stuck in and make memories together by picking from a packed schedule of activities including Be Military Fit family group workshops, Paddleboarding on Powderham lake, a specially designed adventure obstacle course, tranquil yoga sessions and much more.

Tickets are available now at https://bit.ly/3lAANKK