The Big Chill 2002 (Festivals in general)

Member Name: Nozz

Product:	Festivals in general
Date:	19/08/02 (251 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful landscape, Chilled-out music, Peaceful atmosphere

Disadvantages: Not good for people who hate dance music, Low-key compared to other festivals

I only had 3 hours sleep last night and am not feeling on tip-top form…so I don’t expect this op to be my best ever, but having lost my festival virginity last weekend, I want to share the experience in all its gory and thrilling detail….

OK, so I wasn’t a total virgin. I did V2001 for a day last year, and went to Sonar in Barcelona, a festival for wimps where you get to stay in nice hotels instead of camping. But having indulged in a little foreplay last year I decided 2002 was going to be the year I went all the way, and had the full-on canvas and mud experience. My choice of festival: the Big Chill at Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire. (15 miles or so from Gloucester)

The Big Chill have been organising festivals and events since the mid-90’s, and there are now several events which are fixtures on the festival calendar – The Enchanted Garden in July which is always held at Larmer Tree Gardens in Wiltshire, The Big Chill in August which is a larger event and changes venue from year to year, and for anyone wanting a post-summer chill-out holiday, the Big Chill decamps to Naxos in Greece for 10 days at the end of September.

They also organise club nights and events throughout the year at the Union Chapel in Islington, North London, a Grade II listed building used as a drop-in centre for the homeless during the day – currently the venue is in dire need of restoration so a campaign is under way to raise money for this. The Big Chill also now has its own record label featuring artists from the various events.

The general ethos of the Big Chill is, I imagine, something like Glastonbury was in the old days – sponsorship kept to a minimum, family friendly, emphasis on recycling & keeping the site litter-free, and eclectic food rather than just burgers and chips. And of course always in a beautiful scenic location and numbers kept to a minimum (10,000 at the Big Chill compared to 140,000 at Gl
astonbury 2002) so it never feels too crowded.

Enough already…back to the music…The Big Chill is for lovers of dance, electronica and ambient music, but as the name suggests, if you’re a hardcore freak, this isn’t really for you (unless you want a change of pace). The kind of music on offer is not the sort of thing I’d stick on at home, being more of an indie kid, but for the authentic blissed-out sitting in a field experience, it’s hard to beat. A single ticket for one individual for the whole weekend (10am Friday to 11am Monday) cost £89.

* * *

We set off from London at about 11am and arrived on site at 4.30, so it was a fairly arduous journey. Then we were faced with a hike up a steep hill to reach the main entrance, lugging bags and tents – not a pleasant task, and I saw that others were better equipped than us with wheel barrows, trolleys and the like. The car park being so far away was a bit of a pain, but as the Big Chill team pointed out it’s nice to get away from cars for a while, and golf buggies were laid on to ferry disabled visitors and their luggage.

On reaching the top of the hill we saw a beautiful sight – the valley below already full of revellers, the main stage located in front of a series of lakes, and a wooded hillside stretching away. The whole site was in a totally secluded valley in the Malvern Hills, meaning that locals weren’t disturbed and festival-goers had an amazing secluded environment in which to chill out and enjoy themselves.

We managed to drag ourselves on a bit further to find a peaceful camping spot, sloping gently for good drainage but not too steep! I was initially attracted by the nice flat bits of land but realised these were more likely to get washed out if there was a downpour. Quiet and family-only camping areas were located further away from the main festival area, and Portaloos and stand-pipes with drinking water wer
e dotted throughout the camping areas as well as in the main arena.

Having pitched the tent, (what a palaver!) we wandered down the hill to see what delights the first night of the festival (Friday 16th August) had in store. As the music started at 12 noon, we’d already missed 7 hours, but having grabbed some food (vegetarian pasta for me followed by a chocolate/orange crepe, yummy) we started off in the club tent with Tom Churchill, doing a DJ set which wasn’t really to my taste, and then headed over to the smaller outdoor stage, the Sanctuary, to see Bola, an electronic ambient artist much beloved of my other half. This was fairly pleasant to me, but the other half was in ecstasies and said it was the best thing he’d ever heard.

Then it was over to the main stage to see the Gotan Project and that’s when things really got going for me. The Gotan Project play dub tango grooves, which sounds ridiculous, but when you’re seeing an accordion player, guitarist, violinist, pianist and singer all up on stage together with two DJ’s creating a wonderful layered blend of Spanish rhythms, you begin to feel ever so slightly that you’re in heaven. Added to this was amazing visuals – a gauze stretched over the stage was projected with images of tango dancers while the musicians were lit up behind in a wonderful amber glow.

Gotan Project was the last act on Friday night, so we then went to the Media Mix tent to watch the Wicker Man, a suitably haunting film for the occasion, even more so as the songs in the film were accompanied by live music which was a lovely touch.

Two weary but chilled-out folk finally reached the tent at about 4am and we snuggled down for a long lie-in, only to be woken in blazing sunshine at 8.30am – I’d forgotten how HOT tents get on a sunny day, and we were both roasting so going back to sleep was not really an option.

* * *

We made it down fo
r breakfast at 11am, and certainly a big bun with veggie burger, 2 fried eggs and loads of salad and ketchup, accompanied by a cappuccino, was enough to bring me back to reality. We now had a chance to wander round the site and take in the various stalls selling goods including rugs and folding chairs to enable optimum horizontal chilling-out, clothes, jewellery, books, CDs and all sorts of other trinkets.

There was also a food store selling basic essentials for people who were doing their own cooking (gas stoves allowed, open fires not), but it could have done with a few more non-food things like sun tan lotion and grooming stuff – I forgot to pack a brush and looked like a raggle-taggle gipsy by the end, not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, but I could have done with a comb. There were hot showers available but always with long queues, so we gave them a miss and washed in cold water from the standpipes. There was a cash machine on site too, but it was the sort that charges you £1.50 for the privilege of accessing your own money. In terms of other facilities there were several first aid points, a kids tent with fun activities such as face painting, hula hooping, circus skills etc and a Mind Body and Spirit area for yoga classes, massages and the like. Outside the main arena was a 24 hour café for anyone getting the munchies in the middle of the night, but it was miles from our camping area so we didn’t bother.

Nozz and Other Half’s viewing schedule for Saturday included:

Roger Eno, Brother of Brian, on the Sanctuary stage followed by Jerry Dammers and the Echo String Quartet on the same stage.

A break in the Tiny Tea Tent (solar and wind powered) while watching the Wacky Races – grown-ups more foolish than me doing sack and three-legged races accompanied by tequila slammers.
Lol Hammond and the Jedi Knights in the club tent – more funky dancey stuff.

The mighty Plaid on the ma
in stage, a fantastic set by these ambient gurus accompanied by some fantastic visuals. (All stages had big screens on either side with visuals ranging from the repetitive and dull to the utterly mind-blowing)
Finally Royksopp on the main stage, to my great excitement, as I had heard of them through Dooyoo, and was thrilled that among all these obscure and trendy bands was one that I had heard of and the other half hadn’t! (Their most bouncy, happy tune, So Easy, is apparently used in the T-Mobile ads so might be familiar to some)

Royksopp did not disappoint. This Norwegian duo put on a really entertaining show; they fling themselves around the stage and yell out ‘Thank You!’ in thick Scandinavian accents at every opportunity. This was a nice contrast to Plaid who hide behind their laptops and didn’t even wave goodbye as they left the stage.

Once Royksopp had done their stuff we decided to hit the Art Trail – as an eclectic multi-media festival, the Big Chill always goes in for this sort of thing, and after another steep climb up a hill, we wandered through the dark forest encountering art installations from lasers creating flickering sine waves in the trees to firey beacons dotted across the hillside. It was a magical experience – only available at night, as most of the light-based installations would lose their impact during the day.

* * *

After a good nights sleep on Saturday, we decided to make the most of our last day, knowing we would reluctantly be heading off before the end, and saw:

Lol Hammond and Norman Jay doing DJ sets on the main stage.
Laura B and Ulrich Schnauss on the Sanctuary stage.
Schmoov on the main stage, but we were hanging out in the cocktail tent with some friends and didn’t listen too closely.
Fila Brasilia on the main stage, a mix of guitars and keyboards, and accompanied for some of the set by the very funky vocalist Steve Edwards. <
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I also fitted in a cranio-sacral therapy treatment in the Mind, Body and Soul area – at £25 for an hour’s session this was definitely cheaper than an equivalent treatment in London, and certainly added to my feelings of total peace and serenity. We also did a bit of shopping, including some herbs (no, not THAT kind!) for my mum and gran and some clothes and jewellery for me.

Having packed up the tent earlier in the day, we returned to the car at about 11pm and, blessed with empty roads, made it back to London at 3am. Hence my lack of sleep…..

I may have been a festival virgin, but there is no doubt I will be returning to the Big Chill, as it is exactly my kind of festival. Plus, I’ve bought the darn tent so I might as well use it. The chilled-out atmosphere suits my temperament exactly, and although as you might imagine a large percentage of the audience are smoking the funnneee stuff, at no point did I feel threatened or intimidated by it, as I would be in a London club where you’re continually accosted by people saying ‘Want any pills? Want any pills?’ Also while standing in the dark under the stars I can feel free to dance like a loon and not feel like a fool, as I would if I was hanging out with the Hoxtonites at Fabric.

Obviously this festival is only really going to appeal to you if you are into electronic and ambient music, but the acts I saw were so varied and stimulating that there really is something for everyone.

* * *

Finally a few tips for other festival virgins:

- Make sure you have something to sit on as dew falls very early in the evening and even in August the ground is a bit damp during the day, and you don’t want a soggy bottom. We had waterproof coats but I wish I’d bought one of those waterproof picnic rugs from Argos, which would have been much more comfy.

- Take a large container for water – you can get c
ollapsible ones which fold up when empty from camping shops – as this means you can wash and clean your teeth at your own tent and not have to queue up at the taps like everyone else.

- Although the Portaloos were cleaned out regularly and well-stocked with loo roll, washing hands was a problem and I wish I’d taken a small bottle of handwashing liquid with me or some soap leaves – no-one wants to carry soggy soap around all day, but it’s nice to have clean hands.

- Canvas camp beds are MUCH more comfy than sleeping mats and easier to put up than lilos – I thoroughly recommend them as I slept like a log.

Our tent is a Vango Storm 300, approx. £160 from Field & Trek

Find out more about the Big Chill from http://www.bigchill.net

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