Fake Moon trajecory - Simon Faithfull

The Big Chill Festival has made the most concerted effort out of any festival to include a comprehensive and well-organised cultural program alongside the music. Stages in collaboration with the ICA and projects with the Roundhouse Theatre are new this year, comedy is central to their program and for many years they have had an Art Trail. And this year it was awarded a grant by the Arts Council.

Which is why, sent on a mission to inspect the art, Art Sleuth ended up going to two festivals in two weekends. Fine. Apart from an unfortunate camping location next to a bunch of 30-somethings who had clearly never been to a festival before and were making up for lost time by playing very crap house music loudly until 6am.

It is also unfortunate then that with all this efficient cultural programming there was little of what we would call ‘free-spirit’ about the whole thing, apart from the unscheduled Ibiza music in the campsite area. With the Secret Garden Party still fresh in the mind, which was a health and safety officer’s nightmare, but in a good way, it couldn’t compare.

The Art Trail was only open at night probably because most of the works were film or light based. The darkness hinted at a certain ambience, with the trail laid out in the woods - but it was almost too well laid out. There was no feeling of ‘stumbling’ across art in the woods, more of a feeling of being shunted round a museum exhibit. But perhaps this would have been different if you were there at two in the morning without crowds of people.

Highlights included the Fake Moon by Simon Faithfull, which made a path across the main stage each night and was visible from the art trail perched on a hill facing it. The angry house was a nice touch too. It got noisier and louder as you approached it. But they could have made it a bit angrier looking, as it was, it looked like something you could buy straight from Homebase to keep you lawnmower in.
‘Stable’ was a brilliant film by Kathleen Herbert documenting horses left to free to roam at night around the silent corridors of Gloucester Cathedral. At first the horses seem superimposed in the unnatural environment. Then you start to see that in their total grace and calm about the whole situation, grazing on the stone hallways and clopping up stairways, that their ‘monastic’ personality seems to fit well with the ethereal environment. Spiritual even, some might say.
Elsewhere there was the House of Fairytales associated with Gavin Turk and Deborah Curtis which included a puppet show which was a take on a Becket Play, swapping Duchamp, Joseph Beuys and Warhol for the main characters.
Juneau Projects’ interactive instillation was a great piece of theatre in itself, as it had been overtaken by children thoroughly enjoying themselves playing band instruments connected to a computer game in a sort of amalgamated version of Guitar Hero and Zelda. Incredibly harmonious as you can imagine.

The ICA was running the show in the Mixed Media tent on Sunday with a documentary on gipsy music donning colourful costumes, a random shouting woman that was not very captivating until people started getting involved with the shouting. The main act Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry doing ‘dub action painting’ while Adrian Sherwood laid down some heavy beats, was totally awesome. The paintings are going to be auctioned for Amnesty international so keep your eyes peeled.

Aside from the art Bill Bailey was absolutely hilarious. And as you will hear from anyone, The Mighty Boosh were a little disappointing apart from the Moon’s rendition of “99 problems but the Bitch ain’t one”. A healthy proportion of Dubstep and the incredibly chilled Leonard Cohen, who really is the dude, finished off the weekend nicely.

PHOTO by Jael Marschner

Sweating on a plastic air bed inside a tent the same temperature as a pizza oven is not something the Art Sleuth does well. The heat wave this weekend was beating down in Cambridgeshire but we were not going to give up.

The SGP is probably the most picturesque festival you could go to, (it should be on a Carlsberg advert), as it is built around a pretty lake, although the sludge in the lake perhaps is not so pretty. N.B When I say Sludge I do not mean the stuff they grow cornflakes in.

The lake has a pirate ship on it, with boats you can use to get out there. By night the lake is somewhat of a magical experience of gorgeous fairy lighting and decorations everywhere.

Music is of a huge variety from classic folk bands to dance tents playing anything from glitchy house to dubstep. Slightly unfortunate was the rather haphazard program, which tended to say things were what they weren’t. Bassline, for instance, was actually electro-ish stuff, but really if you go just for the music you’ve probably gone for the wrong reason.

Saturday night was the crowd puller with the pirate ship burning down in a dramatic firework display surrounded by flame-throwers and fire lanterns. Grace Jones followed this on the main stage, living up to her Amazonian reputation by opening with “I’m a man eater,” in a crazy tubular outfit. Strutting her stuff in just a corset and little else for another of her many costume changes, her pert bum was on full display to the amazement of the crowd. 60 years old with the buttocks of a 20 year old body builder. Good going Gracey!

Nifty areas like a treetop games tent or a mud-wrestling pond give an alternative to the music and bar/venues. If you fancy watching a zebra wedding or competing in a giant game of twister, watching Hamlet acted out around your campsite or doing may-pole dancing by night, then this is the festival for you.

Seriously chilling out is also something the SGP does well. A cooling marquee with free popcorn, comfy sofas and David Attenborough’s soothing voice on the big screen is something of a lifeline after three days of your blood reaching boiling point in your tent. Perhaps a camper van next time?

Although most comparable to Bestival as a boutique festival and also in ticket price too, it does lack an accomplished music line up. However it goes some way to make up for this by the eclectic mix of artists and the ease at which you can stumble upon new music. Plus the lack of queues ( there is only about 12,000 festival goers making it one of the smallest festivals) and non-stop atmosphere makes this festival an incredible party garden. Let’s hope it is kept a secret!