Friday

25,000 people descended on the Malvern Hills of Herefordshire last weekend for this year’s Big Chill festival, the fourth event to be held in the beautiful grounds of Eastnor Castle’s deer park.

It’s been 10 years since Pete Lawrence and Katrina Larkin held their first outdoor event back in August 95 and their festivals have been steadily gathering momentum ever since, with this year’s festival attracting a record number of Big Chillers to the idyllic Herefordshire location. Walking down the long sloping path from the hilltop campsite into the valley-set arena, it is easy to understand why more and more people are converted to Big Chilling each year. As the main site comes into view in the valley beneath you, complete with lakes, shady spots and imaginative outdoor furniture, it is a truly beautiful sight; a total culture shock when compared to the show grounds and airfields that most British festivals call home.

We began with a jug of cocktail or three (an institution at this particular festival – the Reggae Rum Punch is not to be missed) at the Open Air Stage on Friday afternoon, taking in Keren Ann’s somewhat bland US folk in the overcast afternoon whilst catching up with friends. The soundtrack here was chilled but uninteresting and we turned our attention to the nearby lake and its fabulous human-sized nests and outdoor four-poster beds. Husky Rescue, on later the same afternoon, also failed to excite us with their frosty female-fronted acoustic rock. Perhaps it was the cloudy weather dampening our spirits (although spirits certainly should’ve been high, judging from the amount of cocktails sunk that afternoon...), but the lush melodic sounds of the album did not translate into the live setting. It didn’t move us, so we decided to make a break for the Southern Comfort sponsored Fat Tuesday bar, just across the site.

Fat Tuesday was to become a favourite haunt of ours at this festival. Like the B-Bar at so many festivals before, Fat Tuesday seemed to have found a party vibe all its own, with artists and DJs performing on a small pavilion stage in front of croquet lawns and packed out picnic benches. On Friday we found Quantic Soul Orchestra’s Alice Russell here, lending her delectable vocals to DJ team Soft Rocks’ funky cuts as the sun came out from behind the clouds. Their set was laidback and fresh, although personally we would’ve liked to hear a little more from Alice, who was in fine voice as usual this performance.

After a refuelling stop at one of the Big Chill’s many excellent food stalls, it was back to the Open Air Stage for a storming set from The Fatback Band. The now-legendary 1970s jazz-funksters banged out some of the heaviest funk I have ever heard live, including classics Spanish Shuffle and All Day, to a massively appreciative dancing audience. Radio 1’s Desi specialists, Bobby Friction and Nihal took to the decks next for an hour of Bhangra-inspired bouncing basslines, which lead the happily-grooving audience neatly into One Self’s multinational offering of live hiphop, breaks and beats. Arguably UK hiphop label Ninja Tune’s most ethnically diverse signing to date, Russian DJ Vadim and his cohorts’ project came to life onstage in a way that the band’s debut album, Children of Possibility failed to deliver. The single Be Your Own worked especially well live, slinking along with its sultry beats, while the band’s jail bait female MC had style and presence to spare. One Self’s tight set was a fitting soundtrack for the warm light early evening in the Malvern Hills.

Drum n bass of the jazzed up live variety followed on the Open Air Stage, as Hospital Records’ favourites London Elektricity took to the stage. Having delivered a stonker of a set at The Big Chill back in 2003, Tony Colman’s stunning live act were on fine form on Friday night as they delivered hits like Billion Dollar Gravy to an audience already on their side. The band’s fantastic light show dazzled the heaving crowds as it grew dark: the entire stage flooded with colourful images. Patife and Dynamite MC gave Friday’s headline performance at The Big Chill this year, the Brazilian heavyweight rolling his jazzy drum n bass beats to regular collaborator Dynamite MC’s dynamic flow as the Friday night crowd bopped its way into Saturday morning.

It must be said that The Big Chill really is exactly what it says on the tin: an extremely laidback and chilled out festival experience. If you are looking for a festival with the all-night delights of Glastonbury or Homelands, The Big Chill is probably not going to be your thing because at 2am Patife’s set ended and the Big Chillers quickly retired to their tents as the sounds of Big Chill FM and quiet conversation filled the campsites, without the slightest hint of a “bollocks” cry to be heard (a quality that will always win a festival brownie points to my mind).

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