The O.H. and I went to the Big Chill this weekend. We pitched our tent on Thursday so as to bag a spot in quiet camping. Unfortunately when we went back the next day there was no room left in quiet camping parking so we ended up in general parking, that meant a good 25 minute walk to our tent. Each morning we drove home for a shower and some breakfast, this probably worked out quicker (and cheaper) than waiting in line for a shower on-site. When we returned from breakfast on Sunday we managed to park in family parking which shaved a good 15 minutes off our walk.

This was my first festival and just about my first time camping so I wasn’t sure what I’d make of either. The atmosphere was great, everyone was friendly and surprisingly it didn’t rain the whole weekend.

Bands/acts we saw

Friday

• Kate Rogers - fantastic, her Seconds album gets heavy play on my iPod so this was an awesome way to kick off the festival for me.
• The Bad Plus - their Aphex Twin cover was so cool.
• Richie Havens - his slot seemed to get moved when Mika didn’t show. The man is a legend. He played at Woodstock.
• Chilled By Nature - really nice listening to this up on the highest stage at night.

Saturday

• Cortney Tidwell - pretty good but I’m having trouble remembering this one to be honest.
• Piney Gir - really good country type stuff, I downloaded the album from eMusic as soone as I got home.
• Mr. Scruff - a standard Big Chill staple. Really good plus had his own cool little animation on the big screens.
• Ulrich Schnauss - I was really disappointed with his set. It sounded like some crap indie band, it was basically a dirge. We left half way through.

Sunday

• Hafdis Huld - amazing, featured the pink flying-V ukelele
• Shlomo and the Vocal Orchestra - this one was really popular, couldn’t even see the screens let alone the stage. Did a beatbox cover of Paul Simon’s Call Me Al that was genius.
• Isaac Hayes - what can I say about this guy, huge star, truely excelent.
• Biosphere - this was the last stage show of the festival, it was the one I really wanted to see. We sat in effectively the front row.

I learned some useful stuff one my first festival:

• Take something padded to sit on, the ground gets very hard at one in the morning.
• Wear lots of sunblock.
• Wear a hat.
• Wear good walking shoes.
• Camp fairly near the toilets (but not too near), it’s a long walk at four in the morning.
• Try not to camp on a hill.

I got up this morning to find four inches of snow outside. The roads are pretty dangerous and blocked up with either snow or other vehicles that have got stuck. So no work today. The photo below is the view from our bedroom window looking up towards the currently invisible hills.