Taking place at Wasing, a beautiful woodland venue just outside Reading in the UK, Equinox will encapsulate the essence of Summer’s event & celebrate the arrival of Autumn.

Equinox promises a jubilant homage to nature's transition, as the vibrant hues of summer yield to the contemplative embrace of autumn. With the equinox marking the balance between light and darkness, you’re invited to join us for communal revelry, dance, ritual and moments of introspection, harnessing the energy of seasonal change.

Taking place from 20^th – 22^nd September, the Equinox weekend, Equinox is a one-off fundraiser for the PAR Campaign & Earth Percent.

On Friday, we will welcome US mycologist Paul Stamets on a rare visit to the UK. Paul will be giving a much-anticipated talk on his forthcoming book ‘Psilocybin Mushrooms in their Natural Habitat’.

For the Saturday & Sunday, we are also super excited to partner with Earth Percent. The music industry’s climate foundation co-founded by Brian Eno, with whom we’ve curated an incredible line-up of music artists including Shpongle (DJ Set), Younger Brother, Hayden Thorpe, Mira Khanya, Sam Lee, The Egg & Di-Pod. As well as a range of very special guest speakers including Rebecca Dennis, Alexander Beiner, Breaking Convention, the Urge Collective, and the Museum of Consciousness, bringing a finale to Summer like no other.

The powerful late night Fireside Sessions will take place in Wasing’s Sacred Glade featuring Nitin Sawnhey. Followed by the Wider Horizons Singing Circle around the fire. At 1.45pm on the Sunday, the time of the Equinox itself, the beginning of Autumn will be marked with ceremony & prayer.

MUSIC ARTISTS

Nitin Sawhney

Nitin Sawhney is one of the most distinctive and versatile musicians of his generation, achieving an international reputation across every possible creative medium. Having achieved the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017, he is firmly established as a world-class producer, songwriter, DJ, multi-instrumentalist, orchestral composer and cultural pioneer. In this very special show, Nitin will be joined by singer YVA and percussionist Aref Durvesh for a one-off intimate performance at the Fireside Sessions in Wasing's Sacred Glade.

Shpongle (DJ Set)

We are thrilled to announce Shpongle’s Simon Posford to perform one of his legendary DJ sets on our main Equinox stage. A pioneer in the psychedelic world, shaping sound and genre with his various projects. Together with Raja Ram Shpongle are an ambient / electronica project formed in 1996 after the pair viewed a solar eclipse in India. After that event, they entered the studio and attempted to duplicate the experience in sonic form, and the result was a 20-minute track, "…And The Day Turned To Night," which was featured on Twisted Records label compilation titled Eclipse. Shpongle's full-length debut album, Are You Shpongled? was released in early 1999 and they have gone on to release five further incredible studio albums.

Younger Brother

Younger Brother is an electronic music powerhouse formed by two pioneering figures in the psychedelic trance and downtempo scenes: Simon Posford and Benji Vaughan. This British duo combines their extensive musical expertise to create a sound that defies easy categorization, blending elements of ambient, psytrance, and progressive rock into uniquely captivating sonic landscapes. The band has graced stages at major festivals and venues around the world, earning a devoted following for their genre-defying sound and mesmerizing live shows. With their innovative approach to electronic music production and composition, Younger Brother continues to push the boundaries of what's possible in the realm of psychedelic electronica, cementing their status as true visionaries in the global electronic music scene.

Sam Lee

The folk custodian of the native song of the British Isles, leading voice in the environmental movement, and creator of the hugely successful and popular Singing with Nightingales, Sam Lee has become, over the course of four albums, a touchstone for the idea of the chronicler and artistic spokesperson of the natural world. It is a crown he wears easily, Sam’s commitment to both the indigenous song culture of the British Isles and its nature is heartfelt and deep rooted and his new album ‘Songdreaming’ is an album infused with a love of the natural world and a fierce commitment to fight for its preservation. The connection to the natural world is also a connection to a better way of being and a desire to recreate an eden that is ever present in his work. For Sam, these reimagined and reworked songs are more than a history, they are a living, vibrant, vital connection to our very being. Sam has a genuine close affinity with Wasing having made multiple appearances at the estate’s Medicine festival as well as being a highlight at the 2023 Solstice event.

The Egg

The Egg are dance technicians – they play live rocktronic, funk and house inspired big textural dance music, using electronic and live instruments with video triggers, samples and live and vocoded vocals. Their music is influenced by everything around them and inspired by artists such as Pink Floyd, Funkadelic, DFA Records, New Order, Underworld, and James Brown. The band are well known on the UK festival circuit but fit just as comfortably into the club scene having played throughout Europe, Australia, America and Brazil. Live, The Egg are a truly unforgettable experience. Their legendary status for six hour improvised sets at 2am precede them earning them the well-deserved title of The Grateful Dead of rave music. ‘Think flirting with Air, a nod to George Clinton and a wink at Primal Scream’.

Hayden Thorpe

Hayden Thorpe has announced a new album and collaborative project, Ness. Using a process of redaction, Thorpe brings songs to life from the pages of best-selling author Robert Macfarlane’s book of the same name. Ness is inspired by Suffolk’s Orford Ness, the former Ministry of Defence weapons development site during both World Wars and the Cold War. Acquired by the National Trust in 1993 and left to re-wild, it to this day remains a place of paradox, mystery and constant evolution. Thorpe’s Ness is an ode to Orford Ness, the physical place and the book it inspired, both featuring the words of Robert Macfarlane and the artwork of Stanley Donwood.

Mira Khanya

Mira will bring Movement Medicine to Equinox & crafts immersive dance journeys that weave together global sounds, inviting collective prayer and reverence for life through the transformative power of movement. She intuitively guides these experiences, celebrating various genres including tribal rhythms, ethno-electronica & medicine songs.

GUEST SPEAKERS

Paul Stamets

Paul Stamets, D.Sc. (Honaris causa), speaker, author, mycologist, medical researcher, and entrepreneur, is considered an intellectual and industry leader in fungi: habitat, medicinal use, and production. He lectures extensively to deepen the understanding and respect for the organisms that literally exist under every footstep taken on this path of life. His presentations cover a range of mushroom species and research showing how mushrooms can help the health of people and planet. His central premise is that habitats have immune systems, just like people, and mushrooms are cellular bridges between the two. Our close evolutionary relationship to fungi can be the basis for novel pairings in the microbiome that lead to greater sustainability and immune enhancement.

Paul Stamets is the author of seven books, including Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save The World, Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, and Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World), he has discovered and named numerous new species of psilocybin mushrooms, and is the founder and owner of Fungi Perfecti, LLC, makers of the Host Defense Mushrooms (www.hostdefense.com) supplement line. He is an invention ambassador for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and was inducted into The Explorer’s Club in 2020. He has received numerous awards, including the National Mycologist Award (2013) from the North American Mycological Association (NAMA), the Gordon and Tina Wasson Award (2015) from the Mycological Society of America (MSA), The Disruptor Award from NextMed (2023), and the SynBioBeta Lifetime Achievement Award (2024). He has named four new species of psilocybin mushrooms. In 2023, a new psilocybin mushroom species was named after him to honoUr his lifelong work: Psilocybe stametsii.

He is a dedicated Earthling, Knowledge Keeper, and is a leader in protection of ecosystems focusing on the roles of mycelium and mushrooms. Paul’s philosophy is that “MycoDiversity is BioSecurity.” Paul funds research to save rare strains of mushrooms that dwell within the old growth forests. He sees the ancient Old Growth forests of the Pacific Northwest as a resource of incalculable value, especially in terms of its fungal genome. His culture collection consists of hundreds of mushroom strains, including nearly 100 strains of Agarikon sourced primarily from the old growth forests. He believes the old growth forests contain a deep reservoir of species essential for pandemic defense.

He is a collaborator with numerous scientific organizations and research institutes. His research is considered breakthrough by thought leaders for creating a paradigm shift for helping ecosystems worldwide. In addition, his work has entered the mainstream of popular culture: In the new Star Trek: Discovery series on CBS, the science officer is portrayed by an astromycologist, Lt. Commander Paul Stamets whose concepts became a central theme of this science fiction. His work with mycelium has become a central theme of this series. He served as the primary guide to the mushroom documentary Fantastic Fungi, which first appeared in theatres in fall 2019 and is currently on Netflix with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Rebecca Dennis

Rebecca Dennis is a globally acclaimed Somatic Breathwork coach and teacher, Sunday Times Bestselling Author and founder of Breathing Tree. For over 20 years, Rebecca has shared the life-changing and transformational benefits of integrative breathwork, bodywork, trauma release, mindset and shamanic techniques to clients worldwide. She places great importance in regulating the nervous system, holding a safe container and helping clients gain peace, feel connected and have a greater understanding of their patterns and to enhance resilience in their life, work and relationships. Through her skilled space holding and extensive experience, she is dedicated to helping people access their innate healing capacity and Rebecca fervently believes somatic breathwork therapy is a powerful medicine we can all have access to for our well-being. She is passionate about healing through a ‘bottom up’ embodied somatic style and not only focussing on the healing of the individual but also the collective.

Alexander Beiner

Author, journalist and facilitator Alexander Beiner, focuses his work on bringing new ways of seeing and being from the margins of culture into the mainstream. He does this through writing and creating transformative experiences that invite us to find ways to evolve and thrive in the chaotic times we live in. He is the author of The Bigger Picture: How psychedelics can help us make sense of the world and writes the popular Substack, The Bigger Picture. He is also an executive director of Breaking Convention, Europe's longest-running conference on psychedelic medicine and culture and one of the founders of Rebel Wisdom, a popular alternative media platform that ran from 2017-2022 exploring the cutting-edge of systems change and cultural sensemaking.

FULL LINE UP INCLUDES

Including The Psychedelic Society, Urge Collective, Breaking Convention & The Museum of Consciousness

To find out more, please visit www.wasing.co.uk/equinox or email events@wasing.co.uk