In the beginning, there was the Rock festival: bad food, warm lager, shouty rock, lots of mud, and no washing for days on end. Next on the agenda, was Rave: repetitive beats, ‘over-stimulated’ crowds, million mega-watt sound systems, and problems with police. Then, FINALLY, the Big Chill was born, taking its ‘back room of a club’ atmosphere to dizzy new heights and into the great outdoors. And so it began to change the face of festivals forever...

But the Big Chill is definitely not all about tree-hugging do-gooders. The plethora of delights across its never-ending fairytale landscapes include dedicated film arenas, cabaret, poetry and comedy. Last year, the biggest crowd puller of the three-day event was without a doubt cult heroes The Mighty Boosh, with nearly all of the characters from the hit TV series making an appearance, from the hilarious antichrist nana (nana-geddon) to the completely weird Old Gregg. It is a rare occurrence when comedians upstage their more music-orientated rivals, but not at The Big Chill.

The stalls on site in the main arena seem as though they would never be matched, let alone bettered. With the likes of record label Rough Trade hosting a larger shop than both of their two old store sites in London put together, selling everything from CDs, T-shirts, memorabilia and even vinyl. Also, the menagerie of mouth-watering gourmet food available is a treat for herbivores and carnivores alike. None of the food is as over-priced as sloppily dining at your local kebab house post Friday night. The Crepes are out of this world, the beers wont leave you needing to take out a second mortgage on your home, and the mid-morning bacon baps... well, succulent cutlets of swine never tasted so good.

Throughout its history, the Big Chill has showcased some of the biggest varieties of music you will ever witness, up tempo as well as ambient. Nowadays DJs like Norman Jay, Mr Scruff and Gilles Peterson are regular performers, and more dance music is heard, but the festival never fails to impress even the most hardened music fan. Last year alone, over thirty new bands from around the globe graced the castle stage curated by Fat Cat Records, with the likes of Frightened Rabbit (see last issue’s interview) being pitted in a brutal dogfight against main stage performer Leonard Cohen. Its easy to guess that Leonard Cohen pulled a larger crowd, but the beauty of it is that the lucky few who caught the Frightened Rabbit set were definitely leaving the arena with happier faces than those who traipsed all the way to the other side of the world to witness an old man in a jumpsuit warbling drunken poems for an hour and a half. It’s this kind of great luck that resonates throughout the weekend. Whenever you’re not sure of who to see next, or where to get your next cup of tea, you might find some perfectly placed sofas in the middle of nowhere to while away the hours. You might be scrambling over knee high grass on the way back to your tent only to find yourself in the middle of a horde of friendly late night partiers deep in the valleys, you may even catch yourself tapping your feet and bobbing your head to some kind of Danish chilled out Techno Trance (Trentmoller was a surprise highlight last year) after falling asleep on your birthday whilst watching Schlomo & the Vocal Orchestra.

This year, the Big Chill is laying on one of the most anticipated comebacks of recent times in the form of Techno’s greats, Orbital. But that’s not all. There is also a repeat stand-up performance by the Mighty Boosh’s very own mirror-ball jumpsuit wearer Noel Fielding. Then there’s leftwing Indie greats Calexico, Dance heroes Basement Jaxx, Emmy the Great, British Sea Power, Dan Black, David Byrne, Friendly Fires, Magistrates, Lamb, and the biggest recorded audience participation Zombie film ever made (be sure to bring the fake blood). And if that’s not yet enough to whet your appetite, there is still a handful of special guests yet to be announced.

Unlike its gloomier counterpart Glastonbury, it always seems to be sunny over the hills of Eastnoor while the festival is on; maybe it’s the ever-present good mood radiating into the heavens like a million tea-candle lanterns. With other festivals, you kind of know what you’re going to get when you turn your pockets out for tickets. But not with The Big Chill. The festival seems to be like a magical pandoras box, where you never know what’s around the corner. And there you have it. A comfortable, friendly camping weekend where you can chance upon unknown bands and bigger, international names too. Other, lesser known festivals may have tried to improve on The Big Chill’s blueprint, and some revellers prefer a different musical barrel all together, but one thing is for sure: The Big Chill is a super-sociable get-together in a beautiful and sunny part of the world.

Words > Franc Botha

With extracts from: The Cool Camping guide to Festivals, by Sam Pow.