From Norwich, With Love: Wild Paths 2025 Review

Wild Paths Festival, Norwich

14th-18th October 2025

Photography by Amber Hill

Toby Furlong

I’m a writer hailing from the distant land of Norfolk. With a deep love for vinyl, currently standing at over 100 in my collection. When it comes to picking a favourite artist, it will always be the sounds of Trish Keenan and Broadcast.

Now in its sixth year, Wild Paths continues to be a shining light for a region that has long been overlooked artistically

Something seismic is happening in the faraway land of East Anglia. In fact, this freak out has been brewing for the last six years. Across the last few years, Wild Paths and its sister festival Wild Fields have been quietly growing, offering a treasure trove of up-and-coming talent that has seen past performances from now established sensations such as Black Honey, Ezra Collective and Squid.

The 2025 instalment has been no different, and our three day adventure has seen us venturing into a plethora of unique venues with performances from groups such as KEG, Getdown Services and Lime Garden, live from a 400-year-old former church.

The independent spirit of Wild Paths feels in harmony with our philosophy over here at CLUNK. Many of the artists on the roster were at the very start of their musical journeys and I can emphatically say that many of tomorrow’s stars were given the chance to play a blinder.

Our starting line for the festival was located at the regal-esque Maid’s Head Hotel where the faint rumblings of a week beginning to wake up were on display. This started out with Archy & The Astronauts, who more than caught our attention with a confident set that married the wit of Alex Turner with the thunderous sound of Royal Blood.

No time to lose however, as it was over to St Laurence’s Church for an early-line-up offering of psych rock courtesy of Behind The Sun Collective. Their rendition of the T-Rex classic ‘Children Of The Revolution’ was a weekend highlight that I recommend searching for. It also segued perfectly into the similarly off-kilter jazz attack of CLUNK favourites KEG.

While the cavernous church architecture may be a bit different to your usual gig setup, it did allow tracks such as opener ‘Girders’ to take on another form; the discordant trombone and Albert Haddenheims’s incendiary vocals in particular were bouncing off the old church walls. A really memorable set from the Brighton upstarts that managed to rev up an audience despite an ongoing battle with the sound setup.

Bringing the curtain down on day one it was the inimitable duo Getdown Services. There was nothing sacred about this set, but holy something-or-other it was mesmerising. The two-piece excel in the notion that when the barrier between performer and artist is broken down and you have a fired up audience in the palm of your hands, the gig has the potential to be incredibly special. Getdown Services had a frantic crowd under a spell and by the time closer, ‘Dog Dribble’ came around it went fever pitch in this grand old building.

Friday night entertainment was to be served up by a triple threat of cross-genre performers. Starting the fun in wonderfully unique fashion it was Turkish-Sri Lankan performance artist BODUR.

The cinema setting was rare enough for a live set, but it was the next hour of avant-garde that pushed the set into unforgettable territory. BODUR’S work offers a reflection on youth, growth and rebirth. The pinnacle of the show was the conjuring ‘MY BLOOD, IT’S IN THE SOIL’ which came into fruition after she recounted “a time when overcome with emotions from the displacement and suffering of the Palestinian people.”

In search of more conventional ground post-BODUR it was nowhere else but Voodoo Daddy’s Showroom to witness what I can only describe as one of the weekend’s crowning moments. Introducing Yorkshire post-punk wizz kids Eades.

The nature of going to a festival with over 150 acts means you are more than likely to stumble across something off your radar and they will just have the ‘it’ factor. Eades are that group and delivered a whirlwind set that radiated magnetic, assured talent. I hear this group play live highlights such as the swaggering ‘Reno‘ and truly original ‘Backseat Politic’, I believe in this band, I’m part of the club and I want the sky to be the limit.

The end of another rollercoaster day rolls around but before we depart, it’s the Brighton four-piece Lime Garden who, since 2024’s excellent indie-rock offering ‘One More Thing,’ have built a glowing reputation, known for Chloe Howard’s unwavering vocals and their knack for playful experimentation. Compared to the previous nights headliners, Lime Garden brought something more measured, dreamlike in its approach.

‘I Want To Be You’ was allowed to wash over the audience in a hazy manner, a welcome switch-up of the previous night. Lime Garden remain one of indie-rock’s most quietly untouchable constellations and I feel very privileged to have seen them perform in such an unconventional environment.

Wild Paths can start to feel like an endless weekend with the unrivalled amount of creativity on display. All things have to end though, and it wouldn’t be CLUNK if we didn’t save you something incredibly special until the last.

Saturday is a new day and this is the finale of Wild Paths festival. St. Andrews Brewhouse was the place to be this afternoon as the sound of a very special performance was flowing out of the upstairs windows. The multi-instrumental singer-songwriter kirakira played a very specific blend of bedroom-pop and indie-folk that felt so evocative, you almost didn’t want to move as an audience, at a risk of disturbing something as stirring as ‘Meteorites and Missed Opportunities‘.

Our Saturday night entertainment entered into last frontier territory down at the majestic Octagon Chapel. Brown Horse are a group deeply rooted into self proclaimed ‘slacker twang’, but they are best at kicking up the dust of traditional Americana music. The six-piece are more than adept at holding a crowd in sway and this can be attributed to a few factors.

There is a gorgeous pedal steel guitar that never fails to make its presence felt across a set. It also lies in the group’s (who share songwriting responsibilities) penchant for deeply moving ballads such as ‘Shoot Back‘ and my own personal favourite, the heart-breaking ‘Paul Gilley’. Nobody writes them like they used to, so I think it should be Brown Horse.

Wild Paths 2025 has felt like the revitalisation of a city itself, if just for a fateful week. The streets of Norwich felt like the epicentre of everything exciting coming out of independent music. It was the sounds of pubs, churches and basements bursting with noise, a city finally standing up for itself and asking “If in Manchester, London, why not Norwich?”

Check out the full gallery from Amber Hill below: