It’s always difficult to accept change, and this year at Big Chill it was no different. A festival favourite of mine - its mix of beautiful setting, friendly vibe, solid ethics and eclectic music policy (including a fair splattering of proper electronic artists) is something to be greatly admired. Big but not too big, well run but not too commercial, it is everything I look for in a festival. Yet behind the sunny allure of last year’s near perfect festival lay serious financial woes. Step in major corporate entity Festival Republic as saviour. We Big Chill fans are indebted to FR for saving our beloved friend, yet at the back of our minds I at least was concerned that changes may come and the heart of the festival may be lost.
First, the differences. There are practical ones - a change of layout means one of the outdoor stages at the far end of the festival, a charming setting away from the main throng, is chucked in favour of a concentration of tents, mostly centred on electronic music, at the opposite end of the site. The famous Rizla Arena is no more, and the open area around its former location which included another small stage where the likes of Reggae Roast, Ramandanman and MJ Cole had given me some happy times was replaced by a toilet area and fencing. An initial walk through the site on a Thursday night fills me with slight apprehension; it looks like the organisers have put more focus on the main stage and the new ‘Uptown’ area, as well as forcing more of the partying down onto the lakeside. Some favourites remain however: the Enchanted Garden up on the hill as well as Mr Scruff’s Tea Party down on the lakeside. The more I get used to it though, the more I forget about the past and embrace what is here. And there are plenty of new touches the past Big Chills would have been proud of. A croquet pitch surrounded by double beds, a huge string of lights that light up the length of the festival all adorned with antique style lampshades of varying shapes and sizes, a new igloo with a Funktion One sound system and the Starburst area - an outdoor stage and dance floor festooned with flashing cubes that are as impressive as they are trippy - as well as a VIP tent on the upper bank, surrounded by fires and home to a very special moment at the climax of our weekend.
The ‘vibe’ is something that is always important to a festival like the Big Chill and this year, it’s not quite the same. People’s respect for the site is lost somewhat. Where recycling was available every 100 yards and was emptied hourly to keep the site gobsmackingly spotless form beginning to end, this year litter is more prevalent and the ‘Leave No Trace’ sign on the hilltop seems to have a lot less of an impact on festival goers. It’s a real shame and something Festival Republic need to address. If they want to hold on to the spirit of the Big Chill, this is a key area that needs to be reinvigorated. The crowd is also a lot younger; groups of mashed up teenagers are commonplace but not annoying, and in general blend in with the party landscape rather than stand out. I suppose all in all things seem a bit more ‘commercial’, more ‘mainstream’ - but this doesn’t detract from the all round positive atmosphere. To be perfectly frank, when you are in a picturesque valley in Herefordshire, surrounded by visually impressive lights, cool sounds, shapes and installations, all cut off from the hullaballoo of London, the things that annoy you are ironed out by the beauty of the occasion.
So, to the music. One thing that blows us aficionados electronicos away was the programming. This year it was brilliant. Classic Acts like Massive Attack and Morcheeba rubbed shoulders with mainstream stars like Lily Allen, M.I.A., Plan B and Tinie Tempah. Yet it’s in the house, techno and dubstep realms where we look at the set times and salivate. German disco house king Tensnake playing a much feted live set; Crazy P, legends like Andy Weatherall, Theo Parrish and Maurice Fulton under one “roof” as well as appearances from the likes of 2020 Soundsystem, Caribou, Mount Kimbie and the mighty Henrik Schwarz. Then there’s house and techno wunderkinds Seth Troxler and Jamie Jones playing a back-to back-set, not to mention legends like Roy Ayres, Gregory Isaacs or vintage Jamaican band The Jolly Boys. There’s real flow to the programming at this year’s Big Chill, each act carefully placed not to upstage the previous or unsettle the next.
Our Friday night kicks off deliciously with Martyn smashing out his dubby off kilter dubstep and 4/4 in the Paradiso tent. He plays a lot harder than I expect considering its early evening, but one can’t fail to admire his wonderfully unique, genre-hopping dubby sounds. It is then a mass convoy to check out Tensnake’s live set on the Starburst stage. His slow disco house grooves have a meaty deepness to them which instantly infects the crowd and soon everyone is going – how do you say - completely fucking mental, especially to his anthem Coma Cat. Things never let up – it’s relentless stuff from the German, everyone wiggling away in the late evening light. His finale is his own take on Azari & III’s Reckless (With Your Love) – a fitting prophecy for the mayhem of the next seventy two hours. A brief thirty minutes of Massive Attack on the main stage (after the kill-me-quick acoustic set of Thom Yorke, who insisted on all other music in the festival stopping during his set....seriously?) and we head to Kruder & Dorfmeister in the Relentless tent. It’s a big show, the duo magnificently perched behind a wall of lights and gadgets. The MCs are troubling for some of us, and plain weird in places, but the finale, sans MC, of jacking epic house and techno is what fans are after - and it remains a bone of contention in the campsite afterwards whether it was an hour of dross or genius. We also crawl into the Igloo – a welcome new addition – where disco edits and slo-mo house pumping out of a very impressive function one system (and 3D projections, glasses and all) slowly build into a bubbling little party full of grins and naughtiness. The less that can be said about Layo and Bushwacka’s dreary two dimensional techno set the better.
Saturday is an afternoon that flies by, rolling about by the main stage listening to Morcheeba as well as an extended whisky-fuelled stay in the Enchanted Garden. It is gentle afternoons like this where the Big Chill comes into its own - playful adventures with a sprinkling of premature hedonism. Early evening and again a convoy of us head towards the Paradiso tent. Maurice Fulton is playing a quality set of big disco-infused stompers sprinkled with often epic sounding house anthems. There isn’t much of a flow to it – a pounding Carl Craig record followed by a gentler disco groove before being thrashed back into four-to-the-floor brilliance, but we can’t not gawp in awe at some of his records. The tent slowly fills up in anticipation of 2020 Soundystem live, who are setting up in the background as Fulton finishes with some gorgeous disco, throwing Ralph Lawson himself into a jubilant round of applause, the Leeds legend wanting all the attention on the American maestro before it’s his turn in the limelight. The buzz of anticipation around a now-packed Paradiso tent is close to boiling over and Lawson and his gang prove why they are such a formidable festival act. It’s tech house at its most groovy and naughty, and the slithering vocals of Sliding Away never seem to tire. Lawson makes intermittent trips to the mic to wind up the tent – not that it needs winding up – and it seems there is not a happier yet humble talent working in dance music in the UK today.
What comes next is astounding and surely one of the sets of the year. Andrew Weatherall launches into the classiest selection of tech tinged house music. Good luck to you if you can recognise any of these records. Then there is his mixing: each track wonderfully weaves into the next with such sublime ease it makes us bedroom DJs feel the pathetic minions that we are. It leaves me gobsmacked. Always a fan of Weatherall but taking him for granted, letting him blend into the DJ legend landscape, I am now going to make a conscious effort to see him again - but it will take a corker to beat this. The night is perfectly capped off with Henrik Schwarz’s live set. He plays tougher than we expected, but it is still the beautifully epic instrumental house music we all know and love from the Innervisions man. His remix of I Exist Because Of You as well as the now classic I’m Feeling You (heard throughout the festival on nearly double figure occasions) are highlights, and by the end we know we have witnessed something special. In fact, asking around our gang at the end of the festival, that Saturday in Paradiso may prove to be one of the best nights of electronic music that we’ve heard at a festival in a long long time.
Sunday flies past with messy games, and music unfortunately passes us by until the eagerly anticipated back to back set of Seth Troxler and Jamie Jones outside in the twilight hours of Sunday night. They are both slowly throwing off the shackles of straight up house and techno DJs and and it feels like they just want to be party DJs, throwing around funky basslines and slow sexy grooves. Troxler’s hilarious work on the mic brings a wonderful sense of unpretentiousness to the proceedings, his announcement during the last tune that “this will be our last tune, it’s a slow romantic track, find that special girl, get up close...I’m Seth Troxler and that is Jamie Jones” could be straight from a wedding jock’s repertoire, but it is anabsolutely perfect for a night such as this. A final unplanned set by Theo Parrish in the Paradiso tent is a bonus we are all very happy with, but it’s the guest-only Jamie Jones afterparty where things turn from fun to just plain perfect. Perched high over the festival, some thirty of us wiggle to disco, ‘80s and funk classics until the sun rises. His last tune – Bill Withers’ timeless Lovely Day , is a moment that will stay with me for a while. As Jones sways around in an elephant hat and we all embrace one another, it proves a near perfect end to a wonderful weekend. Yes, Festival Republic didn’t get it right all the time, and they have a good bit of work to do to not lose what has made this such a brilliant weekend in the festival calendar. But as Bill’s words swirl round the tent they can be forgiven – the Big Chill’s still got its magic.