The Big Chill succeeds with smiley people, great live acts and a beautiful site

Sunday came around all too soon and we woke to a somewhat cooler, more overcast day than the previous two. The skies were cloudy with rain threatening as we wandered down into the main arena. Eating our breakfast by the Open Air Stage, we were forced to endure the 'music' of Spring Heel Jack with Evan Parker, making some of the weirdest, least-compatible-with-breakfast noise I have ever heard. A quick Google reveals that these guys are apparently exploring "a vast landscape of moods, colours, styles... The hypnotic maelstrom of dissonant horns, solemn piano notes and background drones," but all I can hear is a drone and it's a relief when they are finally finished.



With the skies looking dark and foreboding, I am worried that Norman Jay MBE has apparently forgotten to pack the sunshine in his record box this year, which will never do. Norman Jay's soulful Sunday lunchtime sets are a Big Chill institution and sunshine is a mandatory requirement. How can there be Good Times without sunshine?! I should have known better, however, as the sun made an effort to peep through the clouds just as soon as the legendary peer of the realm and carnival DJ played his first record. Playing his usual eclectic and upbeat blend of house, drum n bass, soul, jazz and funk, as ever Norman packed out the Open Air Stage arena and played a belting set that had absolutely everyone up on their feet and dancing.

This year it was time to say goodbye earlier than usual this year, and after Norman Jay it was time to pack up and go. Before leaving the arena, we went over to the Castle Stage to say our goodbyes to some friends, but found that they were too busy laughing hysterically at John Shuttleworth's comic songs to have much time for us. Waiting for a gap in the proceeding to say our goodbyes, our intentions of leaving then and there quickly faded away as we were also sucked into his set. Playing a Yamaha PSS portable keyboard, John Shuttleworth had been the alter-ego of comedian Graham Fellows since 1986. His character is an aspiring singer/songwriter in his late 50s from Sheffield, who has a quiet manner, nerdish tendencies and a selection of hilarious would-be 'club style' hits including 'Pigeons in Flight', 'I Can't Go Back to Savoury Now', and a song lamenting the loss of the cardboard protective casing that used to be found in Bounty chocolate bars. As an end to our Big Chill, John Shuttleworth is both fabulous and hilarious, and we left the festival on a real high note.

This was my fourth visit to the rolling hills of The Malverns, and I was well-prepared for changes to this year's festival, not least because one of the co-founders of the festival, Pete Lawrence, has now left the organisation, but also because The Big Chill decided to reach out to the Sunrise Celebration festival and offer them a temporary new home after their event was flooded off the festival calendar back in May. With a new festival-within-a-festival area, a new production team crewing the event, new P.R. management and many new media partners involved in this year's event, I was interested to see how different the event would feel to previous years, being as it seemed to be put on by an entirely new team.

There were many new additions for this year like The Rizla Lounge, which looked like a fabulous party venue all weekend, constantly packed to the rafters, playing pounding beats, with an ever-present enormous queue to get inside. Unfortunately for those on the outside, we also heard regular rumours of a strict and exclusive door policy with door staff cherry-picking only the festival's most beautiful people for entrance, which seems utterly ridiculous within the inclusive atmosphere of a festival – tut tut, Rizla Lounge, this is not what I expect of a brand that makes their money from those who generally don't follow the trends!



Another area to be dramatically made-over for 2008 is the former Enchanted Garden area of the festival. Like the Village Green and Southern Comfort's Fat Tuesday, the Enchanted Garden was another stage kicked to the curb by this year's organisers. Instead of the small and extremely chilled out acoustic stage usually found in this area, in 2008 the Body & Soul area (The Big Chill's answer to The Healing Field) had been moved up there, along with a small market selling local produce which was (as far as I know) also new this year. The Burrow Hill Cider bus, another new addition to the festival, was also located here, meaning considerably shorter queues than you would normally expect for their delicious cider. However, perhaps this off-the-main-drag pitch also explains the hike in the Burrow Hill prices, as prices rose from £3 a pint at Glastonbury in June, to £3.50 at The Big Chill just three months later. In my opinion the cider bus would've been much better situated in one of the more popular stage areas – we certainly would've visited it far more often.

However not all this year's new additions were disappointing, as the new-for-2008 'Disco Shed' attested to. This tiny little gem of a dance venue, found at the entrance to the Body & Soul area, was more than likely missed by the majority of Big Chill-ers this year. This seems a real shame as they always seemed to be throwing a party round there. The tunes being played ranged across the dance music spectrum, but were always fun and best of all LOUD, keeping all those queuing for the Outdoor Stage toilets bopping in spite of themselves through the regular long waits to go to the loo.

The Victorian Funfair was also new for this year, situated next to the Rizla Lounge. This was a nice touch for the families present and also for big kids like us! We had a late night ride on the Big Wheel on Saturday night, which was extremely good fun and offered fantastic views of the site.

Certainly there were noticeably more families than usual this year, probably due to the improved facilities on offer this year for children of all ages. As usual, The Kids Tent, seemed to provide a packed programme of things for little ones to do, but with the addition of the Roundhouse tent, there were now musical workshops and artistic activities for older children to get involved with too.



For all the bad press The Big Chill gets for being 'a festival populated by Guardian readers', there was neither hide nor hair of that paper this year, with The Independent apparently having taken over as the festival's new official paper. In spite of this new arrangement, I didn't find anywhere to buy The Independent all weekend! Call me a Grandma, but I normally rather like getting my paper at The Big Chill, and then reading it in the sunshine whilst listening to some obscure world jazz! It's not something I normally do at festivals, but I did miss it this weekend when it wasn't there at this particular event. Come back, The Guardian – all is forgiven!

For all my criticisms The Big Chill 2008 was still a great event, with tons of smiley, happy, friendly people, some great live acts and a beautiful site. Sure the drinks were even more expensive than usual and some favourite stages had been axed (R.I.P. Fat Tuesday and FunkyWormHole...), but there were plenty of new ideas apparent this year, like the Disco Shed and the Rizla Lounge, that perhaps just need a little time to take root and grow. At the end of the day, the acid test is the opinion of first-time Big Chill-ers: would they come back for more next year? Our friends - the very same friends told by BC staff that they would not be getting wristbands at 11pm on that rainy Thursday just three days before - absolutely loved it and assured us they would definitely be back in 2009.

And for all my moans and groans, so will I.

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