Chilling out in the sun

I'm lying back on a relaxer, being gently toasted by the sun. A reflexologist is massaging my feet, as strains from the New Sector Movement can be heard and a butterfly skittles past my head. Perfect mellowness overcomes me. Aahhhhh. This is what the Big Chill is all about.

The multi-media festival, which took place in the lush, beautiful grounds of Eastnor Castle, was blessed with last weekend's scorching heat. Coming so soon after the rubbish weather that's plagued us so far this summer, it seemed to make all Big Chillers just that little more blissed-out.

The festival, which was celebrating its tenth anniversary year, is all about enjoyment and chilling — hence the name. Fusing together music, art and film with people and real soul, it aims to give its community total relaxation through inspiration. Kids run about while parents enjoy chatting to friends. Clubbers party in any of the many eclectic music tents. People recline on blankets soaking up the atmosphere. Stressed city folk have their worries kneaded and massaged away in the Body and Soul area. Everyone is attitude-free and forgetting their 'normal' life.

The precious ambience of the Big Chill means it feels inappropriate to indulge in other, more standard festival behaviour: rushing over to a stage to catch a favourite act, leaving beer cans and noodle dishes on the grass or getting hideously drunk seems just plain wrong. Instead, Big Chillers are urged to 'leave no trace', the toilets are cleaned regularly (although it still doesn't really prevent them from still being festival loos...) and everyone treats each other with respect and smiles.

The range of artists performing is incredible: every type of music possible is on show, from house pioneers Coldcut, lush electronic heroes Bent, to jazz and soul artists like the excellent Charles Walker and every experimental mixed-up permutation in between. Gently ambling between stages and tents seemed the best way to enjoy the music, although I did develop a healthy fondness for the 'Fat Tuesday' tent, which pumped out riotous soul-funk to happy, sweaty hordes.

It takes at least half a day to fully 'get into' the BC way of life — you arrive hot, bedraggled and lugging a dead weight of tents, sleeping bags and other paraphenalia which doesn't make you feel very relaxed AT ALL. But after that first sip of beer and that first wander around the stunning Eastnor Park, with the castle nestled into the lush, rolling hills, the nightmare of your journey to Herefordshire starts to ebb away.

The festival does have a pretty 'right on' vibe, and some of the programme blurb can seem a little cringey at first to this hardened Londoner — especially the passage which warns against swimming in the lakes, because 'even frogs and tadpoles need their privacy and chill time'. O-kaaaay. My uptight, cynical shell melted away swiftly, however, as the festival is all about being yourself, and within long, I'm eyeing up the Dressing Up box and considering playing croquet on the lawn.

Highlights of the weekend are hard to pick out, swirled as they are into one sunny mass. But Lemon Jelly's thrilling, mesmerising performance on Saturday night, smiling faces all round in Fat Tuesday's, the fascinating treatments on offer in the Body and Soul area and chilling with some new friends around our tent all stand out. So, perfect weather, music, landscape, and vibe. The Big Chill certainly does what it says on the tin