The Big Till

Well, that was a surprise.
Being an original 'I survived Sunrise Festival' chappie, I got a free ticket to the Big Chill.
'Woohoo!' thinks I- brilliant

Well, well. A fantastic site and fantastic changeable British weather conditions, but I did not really chill. The days were great- a bit of Bill Bailey (in the smallest tent rather than on the big stage strangely), the ever-amazing Beth Orton and a few others, but the nights were awful. I always thought the Big Chill was a sort of Cafe del Mar sort of weekend but instead I had Apache screaming in my ear and Garage booming from the radio tent. Maybe its just me, but I find the words Apache and Chill something of a misnomer (and dont get me wrong, Apache is good stuff), but it seemed to be typical of the weekend.

When you have a big bag of Mushrooms to be going along with, a good selection of visually stimulating, random installations and wandering performers followed by a Psy-trance set with a sweet VJ is all I ask for. Thats all. Nothing else. I always thought the Big Chill would be all of those things, but it was none of them and maybe Im not alone. Sunrise were given one field and no budget and it was always full of a night while much of the rest of the site was underused.

As always with a festy I like to give examples of good and bad. BAD: everything to eat cost £6, hence the Big Till tagline; there was no ale anywhere (this from a place with a picnic area, croquet lawn and other niceties of the English summer
GOOD: The Somerset Cider Bus; Sporeboys mushroom risotto and burgers (only a fiver- Ching!!) , Leonard Cohen who made me cry with his stunning voice and gentle humility. Also, check out these guys on MySpace: The Travelling Band (who were the best act of the weekend) and The One Taste Collective (proving that Rap and Fiddle-playing can work)

Shambala for me next, I think. Something back on the Human scale, at least