Author:
Butler Camilla Topics: Culture
01.02.2005
The Big Chill festival
is a combination of music, nature, performance, art and sunshine
is a combination of music, nature, performance, art and sunshine
Big Chill was brought into the world 11 years ago by Pete Lawrence and Katrina
Larkin. The idea was conceived as they listened to music together against the
stunning backdrop of the Black Mountains in Wales. Since then the festival has
grown to include a record label and a bar in the East End of London. Every
year, tens of thousands of devotees travel across England and Europe to soak up
the Big Chill spirit.
In 2004 the Big Chill was held at Eastnor Castle with its dramatic setting in
the Malvern Hills. The surrounding foothills provide a natural enclosure and
people were camped around the lakes in the heart of the valley cushioned by
lush grass. Others slept along the slopes of the valley in flower-filled
fields.
The sun beamed down on the crowds as they explored the many and varied
attractions on offer. These included a body and soul field, cinema tent, art
trail, children
’s animal farm, organic cafes, shadow theatre and discussion forum and more. And
of course there was the music
– the festival’s raison d’être. Music played from midday to midnight on 10 stages scattered around the
valley. The range of music was eclectic: classical to folk, sharp electronica
to mellow chillout, jazz, acid jazz, lounge, house, hip-hop, psychedelica, dub,
reggae, breakbeat
… Highlights included the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain, Coldcut with their
mind-blowing visuals and raw energy electronic sound and Another Fine Day
weaving a soft ambient quilt from African, jazz and Brian Enoesque threads.
In this bucolic tent village, there is no crime and the “leave it as you find it” code is followed by everyone unquestioningly. This means that when tens of
thousands of people head back to cities and towns on Monday morning, nature
quickly reclaims the valley as its own. The weekend of peace and love does not
turn the valley into a fly-tip zone. In short, Big Chill is the closest to
paradise you can come surrounded by tens of thousands of other people.
In our modern world filled with stress, consumerism, and alienation, Big Chill
provides a platform for an alternative state of mind and outlook. It offers the
chance to step out of the weekly, monthly and yearly routine of success and
failure and to experience pure humanism. It enables people to build less
inhibited relations with one another and with their surroundings, not
conditioned by the burdens of urban society. This release can then be taken
back into the
“real world”. As co-founder Pete Lawrence puts it, “Here, people see a microcosm of how life could be and they try to carry a piece
of that into their everyday life.
”
Unwittingly one’s senses start to open up, massaged by surrounding nature and the wealth of
music, performance and art. Judged from a social point of view, the festival
acts as an antidote to urban, metropolitan life and the politics that go with
it. However the festival is not about escapism, and in its own way it has a
political voice. To quote Pete Lawrence again,
”…we are political by providing alternative means of relation and communication
for people.
”
The Big Chill 2005 will be held at Eastnor
Castle (from 5th to 7th August).
http://www.bigchill.net/
Castle (from 5th to 7th August).
http://www.bigchill.net/