Big chill

Not sure if anyone's managed to escape yet - two way traffic on a single track exit route apparently.

ALAN!

That's the complaint about the car park sorted then, now add "I preferred it when it was less commercial and went bust every year".

Lord Borthbury

There's an amusing racecard on the Big Chill forum offering odds on various complaints.

http://forum.bigchill.net/index.php?/topic/698766-big-chill-moans-racecard/

My favourite, but not *the* favourite is 'Too many of the wrong sort of people'

Too many f*king young kids. The place seemed to be awash with 15 / 16 / 17 year olds who were drunk, cackling and squawking and shouting ALAN all f*king night. But clearly that's the audience Festival Republic are aiming at now. Big Chill it wasn't. 

I couldn't believe they'd skimped on the big screens by the main stage! Yet stupidly HAD them in the main dance tent.

No Body and Soul cafe either, it was replaced by what looked like a massage hypermarket. I really missed the Sunday night closing disco in there. Shame on them.

So, goodbye to all that, next year I'll be trying Festinho, which looks (just from the line-up) like it's a Big Chill rebirth.

Oh yes, getting naked for the Spencer Tunick photo shoot was great fun.

tg

He he, we also hit that one on the way in, Thursday lunchtime. 250 cars entering site held up by one car trying to leave it.

Likes:

Caribou and Bonobo on Clash stage were fab. These acts were perfect for small stage (though Bonobo's 11 musicians could barely fit on it!). Big audience in both cases.

Igloo: nice concept, variable results.

Starburst: good open-air replacement for Rizzla (none of that 'you can't come in' idiocy). Loved various sets, including Greg Wilson on Sunday and some Italo-disco on Friday.

Martina Topley-Bird opening main stage Friday. Far better than later Massive Attack show featuring same, on same stage.

Thom Yorke Friday night. Strangely, some parallels between Martina and Thom sets either end of Friday.

Spencer Tunick: four hours of pure fun. Just as well the sun came out for us on Sunday morning (7.30am start). The paint was fabulous. The soft bits of neighbours when lying down were interesting.

Hookie in Words in Motion tent Thursday night. Had a brief encounter with him afterwards. The whole thing was magic, including him inviting a member of the audience to sit with him on stage and share.

Paul Morley on Jackson in Words in Motion. Gawd, Morley has his faults, but it did result in some great debates about Michael's life and legacy. Which was kinda the point I think.

Fake Bush: she's fab. The audience participation was excellent. I'll forgive the Gaymer's concession (she was on their stage) for this one.

Dislikes:

No fooking ale. Really. There was no actual real beer to be had on site. Anywhere.

No sign of bread or cheese people. (Reports that bread person now in *red camping*? Like 30 minutes walk away)

Where the f*** was the body and soul cafe? Sorely missed on Sunday night. Looks like it's gone for good.

Daft location of Words in Motion. How the f*** can WIM (spoken word) compete with near-neighbour Ugg concession (raucous music sounds)?

House? Where was it? Techno, likewise. Too much LCD.

I do object to 15-yr-olds begging me to get them on site, with their drugs, who then go on to shit all over everything. Who knows how they've been dragged up, but there was a considerable contingent that spent the whole weekend trashing the place, taking a lot of acid, shitting in tents (ahem, not always their own) and being totally 24-hr party people in the worst sense. There were 15-yr-olds phoning their mums asking for rescue from their own maelstrom! And 15-yr-olds appealing to site security against their compatriots. So not just an oldie thing. (And apparently the so-called 'quite field' was anything but quiet, according to reports.)

He he, we also hit that one on the way in, Thursday lunchtime. 250 cars entering site held up by one car trying to leave it.

Likes:

Caribou and Bonobo on Clash stage were fab. These acts were perfect for small stage (though Bonobo's 11 musicians could barely fit on it!). Big audience in both cases.

Igloo: nice concept, variable results.

Starburst: good open-air replacement for Rizzla (none of that 'you can't come in' idiocy). Loved various sets, including Greg Wilson on Sunday and some Italo-disco on Friday.

Martina Topley-Bird opening main stage Friday. Far better than later Massive Attack show featuring same, on same stage.

Thom Yorke Friday night. Strangely, some parallels between Martina and Thom sets either end of Friday.

Spencer Tunick: four hours of pure fun. Just as well the sun came out for us on Sunday morning (7.30am start). The paint was fabulous. The soft bits of neighbours when lying down were interesting.

Hookie in Words in Motion tent Thursday night. Had a brief encounter with him afterwards. The whole thing was magic, including him inviting a member of the audience to sit with him on stage and share.

Paul Morley on Jackson in Words in Motion. Gawd, Morley has his faults, but it did result in some great debates about Michael's life and legacy. Which was kinda the point I think.

Fake Bush: she's fab. The audience participation was excellent. I'll forgive the Gaymer's concession (she was on their stage) for this one.

Dislikes:

No fooking ale. Really. There was no actual real beer to be had on site. Anywhere.

No sign of bread or cheese people. (Reports that bread person now in *red camping*? Like 30 minutes walk away)

Where the f*** was the body and soul cafe? Sorely missed on Sunday night. Looks like it's gone for good.

Daft location of Words in Motion. How the f*** can WIM (spoken word) compete with near-neighbour Ugg concession (raucous music sounds)?

House? Where was it? Techno, likewise. Too much LCD.

I do object to 15-yr-olds begging me to get them on site, with their drugs, who then go on to shit all over everything. Who knows how they've been dragged up, but there was a considerable contingent that spent the whole weekend trashing the place, taking a lot of acid, shitting in tents (ahem, not always their own) and being totally 24-hr party people in the worst sense. There were 15-yr-olds phoning their mums asking for rescue from their own maelstrom! And 15-yr-olds appealing to site security against their compatriots. So not just an oldie thing. (And apparently the so-called 'quite field' was anything but quiet, according to reports.)

Have we still not got rid of this double-posting thing????

evidently :)

evidently ;)

....and the winner is John Graham. 

Absolutely shocking behaviour.  Kids having fun and getting trashed at a festival. 

Are you having a bubble?

Tensnake, Crazy P, Layo & Bushwacka, LowLife, Maurice Fulton, 20/20 Soundsystem, Andrew Weatherall, Henrik Schwarz, FutureBoogie, Hotblood, Theo Parrish, Seth Troxler, Jamie Jones etc tec.

I would say that the two dominating sounds of this years festival were House and Dubstep.  

Yawn.

It's not like it used to be etc etc. 

Had an ace time. Absolutely massive this year and the camping was so much easier. No three hr treck over hills to get back to your car etc.

Taking 3 hrs to get in on Thursday night was fucking stupid though.

The demographic has changed as well. No scrummy Mum's and mung bean eaters. Been replaced by loads of kids doing laughing gas and acid  :-) 

In no particular order....Steve Mason/Tensnake/Lowlife/Liam and crews set in the enchanted garden whilst off my head and looking across the valley/stumbling around the enchanted garden off my head/Terry Calier/Rockeoke in the Gaymers tent/Danny Wang playing disco and chatting on the mike (to a man who was dresssed as a cow - can I milk your udders)playing air violin, sax etc and then playing Madonna 'Lucky Star' and telling everyone to dance like they were 13 and standing in front of the mirror/Weatherall playing a classic Weatherall set - starting off deep and chuggy and banging it out by the end/Terry Calier/Roy Ayres/Greg Wilson.

Maybe don't whinge, moan and clutch your perals and instead go and seek some sauce, cheese and salad to liven your burger up?