I’ve just gotten back from The Big Chill. It was fantastic. David “Super Star” Mellor and I started the weekend on Thursday, with a long slow trip to Eastnor. We camped with about 8 other guys who were friends of friends. It was a great group overall. I especially enjoyed the “frat boys” (as I called them). They were constantly recovering from a binge, but remained charismatic and entertaining through the entire weekend.
After a day or so, I finally lost the tensions of London life, and starting to feel like one of the regular “chillers”. While I don’t quite feel part of “The Big Chill Generation”, which seems like a somewhat pretentious concept, I was blown away by the sense of community at the festival. Everyone watched out for each other. When 30,000 people, let alone English people, get together in a small space and drink, your going to get culture clashes and tension. But not at The Big Chill. Everyone was friendly. Even smiling eye contact friendly. It was like living in a small town.
The music was fantastic as well. I had only heard of a handful of the acts on the lineup, but I can’t think of a single act that I couldn’t enjoy. These are the some of bands/DJs that I saw which stood out from the rest:
Bonobo
Fat Freddy’s Drop
Hexstatic
London Elektricity
Norman Jay
Urban Myth Club
Youngblood Brass Band
My “best in show ” goes to Hexstatic. Not only was it probably the best drum and bass sets that I’ve heard, but their visuals were stunning. This was far more than a fancy winamp plugin. Their timing and selection of video elements was mesmerising.
I’m back in London now, and back to work, but it will take some time before I loose the calm that the Big Chill brought.
