Long tailbacks, short sleep & Big Chill

Managed to wangle a flexi-half-day from my lovely new employer meaning we could organise ourselves for Big Chill. However, the Friday night traffic started early on the motorways and some people decided their day wasn't interesting enough and caused a few crashes along the way. Some 6 and a half hours later, passing through some post-flooded areas smelling of fish, we get to the site.

It was our first time in a tent, at a festival and probably the last. Lugging stuff miles and the hassle of trying to find a place to pitch isn't the best. By a stroke of luck we spot James (Kerry's ex-yoga teacher) and Paul taking the last scrap of land next door. They had already made friends with two couples from Manchester who were already canning into their supplies. The pop-up tent was a master-stroke of genius and we were ready for attack.

The Chill starts here
Over the Big Hill, we saw the beauty of the site. So many great food stalls and all priced very reasonable. The line-up was very alternative with the Media Mix tent, Finlandia area and the Cabaret tent being our regular haunts. Zan Lyons did a soundtrack remix to Ghost in the Shell(2):Innocence. The manga film has gorgeous visuals and Zan's haunting violin really worked well. Next we rejoined our new happy campers to listen to Tom Middleton. Not the best set I've heard and regretted not sticking to Kruder & Doffmeister on the main stage. A little more exploring then back to the tents for some random chin-wags joking about pipes up arses and other things I can't really remember.

Saturday
A minuscule of sleep and an early wake-up from a capoeira club twanging and drum-beating meant a really tame day of lying down and watching the world go by. There was plenty of art, sounds and walking entertainment courtesy of the those dressing up. Whilst on our travels we saw the disturbing, paedophile-dream of the children's fashion show with the winner being an eight-year old boy in a dress with fake boobs. No photos were taken in case we were lynched by parents. By about 5pm we could see the potential of ruining the evening without a proper kip so stole an hour back in bed. More class costumes passed our way including two lads as Ken and Ryu from Street Fighter 2 and Old Greg from the Mighty Boosh.

We waited ages for a really tasty stone-ovened pizza which was well worth it. Whilst queuing I gained a pet bee who latched on to my shoulder for go knows how long. I named him Howie, who was obviously stoned, and even he even allowed me to stroke him. After a little persuasion I had to let Howie go and see DJ Yoda who put on a great VJ show. So many highlights including David Dickinson, film clips from Human Traffic and alot of old classics like Paul Hardcastle's 19, Paul Simon's 'Call me Al' and Bowies' Let's Dance. There was even a computer animated Star Wars Yoda breakdancing with Stormtroopers grooving in the background.

Animat, the same people that brought us their soundtrack remix of Belleville Rendezvous had a new film called the Straight Road. It's about an old guy who wanted to explore America on his mini-tractor/lawn-mower. After Yoda, I don't think anyone was really bothered about as it looked boring. A bit more wandering and tried to like Howie B's set but got bored of that as well. The evening ended up in the cabaret tent with punk-rock karaoke, some mixed can-can troupe then ending the night on a crap act involving a walk-on piano and some dodgey break-dancers. Time for some much needed sleep.