Big Chill<\/a> at Eastnor.<\/p>\nI always have mixed feelings about festivals, really. I think maybe it\u2019s because they are supposed to be relaxing in some way (getting away from yer cities and work) but they actually provide such a bewildering amount of stuff to do that it all rapidly becomes quite knackering.<\/p>\n
Takings kids along seems to circumvent a lot of this because you can\u2019t actually just go and watch things, you are forced to wander about and not move at your own pace. After the initial shock of not being able to tick things off my all-encompassing \u201cto see\u201d list, I actually prefer this way of doing things \u2013 drifting about, seeing what\u2019s what, sitting down and listening to some music while the daughter and her friends do some colouring-in. Eating, chatting and looking around become more important than consuming performances.<\/p>\n
This does mean it\u2019s nigh on impossible to \u201creview\u201d. But my highlights were:<\/p>\n
![\"DJ](\"https:\/\/www.uncarved.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/08\/djderek.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
DJ Derek <\/strong>(mainly because he looks like my dead grandad but with better music taste and no racism). Not quite sure how old he is, but there he was at lunchtime blaring out Conroy Smith\u2019s \u201cDangerous\u201d and Nina Simone whilst chugging down cans of Red Stripe and chatting in great growly Bristol accent between the tracks.<\/p>\nPunch and Judy show<\/strong> in the kids tent. “Dad! He put the baby in the sausage-making machine!”
\nTippa Irie<\/strong> – he still knows that it\u2019s good to have the feeling you\u2019re the best.
\nHearing Mad Professor<\/strong> from my tent, half asleep, dropping “kunte kinte”.
\nSt Etienne<\/strong> and the Ukulele Orchestra of GB<\/strong>, also heard from tent.
\nNorman Jay<\/strong> doing what Norman Jay does at the Big Chill.
\nThe Strongbow tent<\/strong>, which provided an interesting conundrum for \u201cno logo\u201d types as it was the epitome of corporate branding but was really well designed (with small dancefloor instead of a cavern) and had some completely excellent sets on (for example some nice soul in the afternoon and some funky techno stuff in the early evening).<\/p>\nThe lowlights were missing most of the stuff I wanted to see, especially Horace Andy<\/strong>, but then finding out he didn\u2019t show up anyway. Hurrah!<\/p>\nBC always gets slagged off for being a bit cosy and middle class, which is probably fair enough. It\u2019s not like I\u2019m going to take a 3 year old to some illegal darkside drug-fuelled warehouse mash up, is it? I suppose the downside is that some people did seem pretty wealthy and glam and annoying. I was forced to listen to some twat announcing that he was increasingly coming to the conclusion that eugenics was the only way forward and that people who live on council estates should not have children, which is infinitely more offensive than the average conversations you get into with people in London boozers. Not that this was typical, but it did make me livid.<\/p>\n
There were effectively two shifts operating at the event \u2013 over in \u201cthe family field\u201d (Christ, what have I become? ;)) we got up with our kids and faffed about until they went to bed at about 8pm or whatever and then got a bit merry. Down the other end the ravers got up about midday and then did their thing (including dancing to Underground Resistance<\/strong>, the lucky gits) until 2am.<\/p>\nBeing a parent does strange things to your thought processes\u2026 back in a London pub I ended up having this discussion with a mate after a meeting:<\/p>\n
Her: So how was the rest of the festival?<\/p>\n
Me: Yeah it was really good, though it can be a bit odd taking kids there, cos you don\u2019t get to see all the stuff you want and have to think about bedtime and keeping them entertained and all that.<\/p>\n
Her: Will you have another?<\/p>\n
Me: No, I don\u2019t think so, it\u2019s too much work really\u2026<\/p>\n
Her: Eh?<\/p>\n
Me: All the sleep deprivation and stuff…<\/p>\n
Her: I meant <\/em>\u201cwill you have another PINT?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The back end of my holiday was spent at the Big Chill at Eastnor. I always have mixed feelings about festivals, really. I think maybe it\u2019s because they are supposed to be relaxing in some way (getting away from yer cities and work) but they actually provide such a bewildering amount of stuff to do …<\/p>\n
Continue reading ‘do what thou chill’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncarved.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncarved.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncarved.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncarved.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncarved.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncarved.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6225,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncarved.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions\/6225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncarved.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncarved.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncarved.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"kids'](\"https:\/\/www.uncarved.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/08\/tent.jpg\")
<\/p>\n