Big Chill 2006

GROUP HUUUUUG!

Big Chill 2006

Well, as per, the Big Chill did exactly what it said on the tin. The usual crew was out in force – Ed, Char, Larry and my good self, as well as new additions to the family, Dawn, Darren, Lynda and Blair. And, remarkably, I actually PAID for a ticket, which is very unusual for me, and you know what? It comes with the added advantage of not having to work AT ALL for the entire time! Why’d I never think of this before?

Arrived late afternoon on Thursday, to find Ed had once again chosen a prime camping spot (good to have someone around who gets there early enough to bag a goodie) and that Char and Larry had got there before us even though we were half be hour ahead of them at some stage. I blame it on my conservative driving since I still don’t trust my beloved-but-ageing car after the last towing incident (God Bless the AA!)

We tried the camping area over the hill this year – a good choice I feel, rather than the easier-to-access-but-tends-to-get-too-busy field we have used in previous years. Only hassle was the distance from the toilets and the rather inadequate number of the same, and for a festival renowned for it’s clean toilets (seriously, the festie site toilets were pretty damn good! One could actually have sat on the seats most of the time, if one had chosen to) the camp toilets sucked ass. Literally. The shit was piled so high in some of them there was a real danger of being sucked in by the vacuum created by whatever bacteria was using up all the oxygen… Luckily there was a nice embankment where a girl could go feel the breeze on her fanny and have a comfy bush-pee. There were pretty impressive showers, though! I’ve never really bothered with getting clean at festies, but now I’ve discovered that the joy of the morning shower applies to festivals days as well as normal days, I’m a convert. The water was warm, there was enough pressure to get the shampoo out of your hair, it’s actually quite nice not to be a smelly person…


ED AND I GET DOWN TO SOME PIE-EATING

As usual, the music was average to middling overall, but a few stars did shine out - Ursula Rucker in particular. The girl gave a performance that could have started a revolution had the audience not all been so, well, chilled… Revolution? Ah. Maybe tomorrow…


URSULA TRIES TO START A REVOLUTION

Friday night Coldcut were fabulous and Sunday Bent were about the best we saw, but hey the Big Chill is less about the actual music than having something musical going on in the background to boogie to wherever your wanders happen to take you.. I like that about BC – Glastos is all about missioning form stage to stage trying to fit as many bands as possible in.. BC is just about hanging out with your mates and happening upon some good music as you go.

Lost Vagueness with their rather silly Wedding Chapel was a bit disappointing, especially after PunchDrunk’s astonishing madhouse/circus/freakshow/asylum last year.

But the absolute highlight of the whole weekend was The Climbing Of The Great Old Oak Tree. After Saturday night’s festivities, we were slowly assembling at home base when Ed bounced up and said “let’s go climb a tree!”.

Ok, yeah, why the hell not? So 6 of us went trooping over the hill again, to the tree Ed had spotted as a good climber. It was. Only needed a small leg-up, and then the rest was easy, the branches growing around the trunk like a staircase. After we’d got up and comfortable, we realised we had no refreshments of any kind, nor music, so the mighty Ed volunteered a trip back to base camp and returned with little iPod stereo thingy, an uncracked bottle of scotch, a good supply of weed and a little baggie with little pink pills in… Needless to say, we got VERY comfy up that tree and spend about two or more hours up there, popping halves, necking scotch, skinning up and chatting to people passing below us…

Eventually even our comfy oak got a bit uncomfy and we headed down, and then up another hill to a public footpath that took us to the most refreshing, gorgeous swim in an old quarry. Superb! Sunday morning was SO hot, and we were SO wasted by this time, the swim was incredible. It did only come after a very, very, very long walk though! Christ, Dawn and I had to call a halt and sit down for a while after getting almost to the top of the hill (the festival site is in the Malvern Hills) for a heart-rest and a joint..


QUARRY SWIMMING ROCKS (pardon the pun...)

The music Sunday night was a bit disappointing – we tried almost all the stages for a last breakneck boogie but it didn’t happen. We did, however, adopt one of our Saturday-at-Fat-Tuesday festie friends for the day on Sunday. CJ and co were of the can’t-stop-dancing types and he kept us all going all day.


CHAR GETS DOWN TO SOME SERIOUS BOOGIEING (sp?)

Superb festival, my fourth, and the best so far.

YAY for the Big Chill!