Big Chill Festival 2011

Since its establishment in 1994 The Big Chill Festival has been home to multiple locations in the UK before being brought by heavyweights Festival Republic. Throughout its history, The Big Chill has showcased a variety of different music, up-tempo as well as ambient. Recently, live acts and DJs like Norman Jay, Mr Scruff and of late Calvin Harris are regular performers, and more dance music is heard, but the festival also provides a wide range of music from folk and jazz to dub step and jungle to cater to their own ever-growing diverse culture.

In saying this The Big Chill festival has really stepped their game with regards to the acts they have headlining their stage. In the last few years crow

ds from across England merged to see Lily Allen, Isaac Hayes, Aim, Basement Jaxx, Mr Hudson, Plan B, Tinie Tempah and Massive Attack.

This year The Big Chill Festival opens its gates to The Chemical Brothers, Kanye West, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Jessie J, Robert Plant, Crystal Fighters. Calvin Harris, Aloe Blacc, Janelle Monae, Chipmunk, Katy B & Example.

The camping experience was one in itself!

Travelling to Eastnor Castle in Hereforshire and pitching a tent for the first time without a hammer was definitely a skill I learnt (learnt that if you try to use a bottle, the bottle will burst)!

But we got the job done!

By ourselves might I add, there were so many people, tens of thousands of tents and caravans but nobody wanted to help us – imagine that!

BBC Radio 1 and XFM favourites Crystal Fighters performed tracks off their 2010 debut album Star Of Love for their biggest audience to date, and they were sensational live. Their use of txalaparta and the danbolin seemed to be a crowd pleaser with their fuse of electronic guitars.

Also on the main stage was Janelle Monae. Now to be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of hers at all, because to me, all I seem to hear is a lot of shouting, but her vocal control is very impressive with regards to her energy on stage. But yes, she was wearing the same (yes, it may be trademark, but it’s also tired) black and white ensemble with the same hair style and the same shoes as you’ve seen before, so if you’ve seen her once. Don’t do it again – just hit record.

She also done a Michael Jackson cover and did the moonwalk, but even after that, I can’t say she would make me go to YouTube and favourite any of her material.

Also on the Revellers stage was Katy B and Delvin. Devlin amazed the young crowd encouraging them to go “*$£”king mental!” and that they did as the young lyricist performed his bars on the mic while Katy B did a short set and blamed the production team and had little girls crying their eyes out. Wouldn’t you for £75 a ticket??

Now, I’m not going to bore you with all the infinite details about each and every act, because, well, who has time for all that?

But I will say, I used to be a big fan of Jessie J until her second single. Not that it was to be unexpected, but I can’t hear her raw talent in her music anymore. So in addition to that, she made me roll my eyes, when she was escorted to her big velvet chair on stage with a cast on her foot, which seems like it’s been broken forever. Somehow it felt like a big act and a cry for even more attention. That’s just me. Conversely, her vocals were very good, and unlike a lot of the other acts, she outsung her band, so you could close your eyes and just listen without rolling them.

Grammy Award-winning Kayne West, critically acclaimed as the most arrogant man in hip hop, with some other strong candidates was obviously not going to be on time, but that didn’t stop the herd of people bombarding me from my comfortable patch on the floor to being practically under the armpit of somebody that was obviously not utilising the hygiene facilities on the campsite.

Now, I’ve never been a fan of West, but damn, he was actually worth the wait even though we did boo him when he eventually arrived. For you ‘most important show of the summer’ you shouldn’t be an hour late; and I also have reason to believe he was high, read on....

Kayne West had an entourage 75 people, half of which must have been his troop of professional trained contemporary ballet dancers that were incredible from start to finish. I was told by fans that he puts on a good show, but his performance was almost theatrical and far from the dancing I was expecting from your run-of-the-mill rapper.

He started his performance on top of the sound stage on the middle of the park with Power which got the crowd out of control and made them forget he was late (as he said, ‘they say good things come to those who wait, so I’m at least gon’ be an hour late’). Reason being, as he blabbed on to explain, “He’s a perfectionist, just making sure he gives what the fans deserved”.

That he did, he put on a great show, until he started to talk...

... And BOY, can he talk! He literally whined on stage about how the media portrays him, how “I walk down the street, and people look at me like I'm a monster in some way ... like I'm Hitler or some &^%, how award shows be serving him bull (*&^$ as he explains he was conned into making an appearance at an MTV awards show and some babble about wanting to make the same changes to music as Michael Jordan did for sport and blahblahblah, almost begging to the audience in coherent sentences.

Amongst this pleas, he went on the totally rape the auto-tune, and croaked, all throughout Heartless. Which was actually entertaining, after this political broadcast from the man himself...

Aside from this, I have to raise my hands and say that he is a very creative artist and the energy was apparent through his catalogue of hits such as Flashing Lights, Love Lockdown, Through the Wire and Good Life.

However, I would have considered ending the show on Gold Digger or Stronger as these are West biggest UK hits to date. Instead, he just drugged the vibe by going into yet another heart wrenching anecdote about how his ex fiancé went to a party and met Amy Winehouse and playing Back to Black.

Finish.

*that is the end of the article; I thought it would be creative to use my artistic license and end the West Way.