Another Reason To Look Forward to The Big Chill

At more or less this exact moment me and bandmoreagain were meeting a lovely lady by the name of Amy Wright who we somehow persuaded to give hugs to a group of people who we somehow persuaded to queue up to receive them.

I'm All Going On A Summer Holiday

Since money and the small matter of me fannying off to S.E. Asia for three weeks in January have prevented me from having a summer holiday this year the Big Chill is all I've got so I am hereby starting to get excited about it. Here are just some of the fantastic line-up that I am particularly excited about:

Alabama 3 unplugged
Âme (Innervisions, Germany)
Asian Dub Foundation Sound System
Ben Goldacre
Beth Orton
Bomb the Bass
Bill Bailey
BUG with Adam Buxton (Adam and Joe)
Cornelius
Daedelus (live)
Fujiya & Miyagi
Greg Wilson
Jilted John
John Hegley
Joe Hot Chip plays Hip Hop feat. Dels
John Shuttleworth
Justin Robertson
DJ Krush (live)
Leonard Cohen
Luke Vibert
Mr Scruff
Múm
Nitin Sawhney DJ set
Norman Jay
Plaid
Portico Quartet
Roisin Murphy
Roots Manuva & DJ MK
Thievery Corporation
Tom Middleton ‘Summer of Love - Classics Set’
Trentmøller Live
Unabombers
Vincent Vincent & the Villians

Future Sonic

Is happening in Manchester from 1st-5th May, that's the bank holiday to you and me.

Typically, as when anything good happens in Manchester, I'll be in London. But if I weren't I would be jumping around to leftfield hip-hop courtesy of RZA or arty post-punk care of Wire.

Not Part Of

Since the Manchester International Festival proper was such a damp squib (taking it's cue from the rainy summer in the rainy city) it's heartening to see that Manchester's more left-field entertainment elements have embraced it in their own inimitable style, choosing to launch a fringe festival - Not Part Of - during the official festival's second outing.

In all honesty, I doubt this will draw bigger crowds that last year's festival which had empty seats in all performances (apart from Monkey - thank you the BBC) but it will serve to engage the people of Manchester in this Manchester festival, something the last event utterly failed to do.

Festivals 2008 Cont.

Before I got on my big rant I was supposed to say that I will be going to The Big Chill this year and one other, as yet undetermined, festival.

Suggestions on the back of a postcard.

Festivals 2008

Gulp.

I'm not going to Glastonbury this year.

Actually I didn't go to Glastonbury last year but that was mostly because of work and I was looking upon it very much as a break to renew my energies for this year. Now, when it comes down to it I (and most of my friends - Glastonbury veterans of 10 or more years all) haven't even registered.

It's hard to pin down all the reasons but it sounds to me like the things that were starting to irritate me about Glastonbury in previous year got even worse. As one friend said "it feels like you're in a giant Radio 1 advert".

Having recently gone to a few of the smaller festivals (including the amazing TIPI of which more soon) the sheer scale of Glastonbury has become completely exhausting and unnecessarily hard work. This is, I suppose, a posh way of admitting that I'm too lazy to trek for half an hour to see the acts I only mildly care about, meaning I don't see as many bands as I'd like to.

The line-up is also an issue. I rarely pay much attention to the headliners, since I rarely want to see them but I've always found them a very good indicator of the ethos of the festival as a whole and this year's reads like a bad joke.

My final issue is a thorny one. Last time I was at Glastonbury the levels of public engagement with environmental issues was yet to explode as it has in the prevailing two years and even then I found the conflict between the "green" credentials of the festival and the ignored impact of its happening irritating in the extreme. I can only imagine that now it will be worse. There is something infuriating about wandering through fields of information on green technology in a valley surrounded by mile upon mile of car parks, thousands of petrol generators and stupidly large lighting rigs.

Obviously, it would be difficult to to run the festival without any of these things and of course it is important that we educate people about the issues surrounding sustainable living but the danger is that the audience is somehow conned into believing that they are somehow helping the environment by being there alone and really the opposite is true.

Furthermore, the public transport links and the provisions they make for transport at the festival are pathetic. Just get rid of the car parks, everyone would be forced to take the coaches and, because fewer people would take the mega-tents that have started to become the norm in recent years, there would be more capacity.

I don't begrudge Glastonbury their environmental impact, I should imagine it's less than most comparable festivals, but I do begrudge the smug attitude that they allow to prevail that they do no harm whatsoever. "Leave no trace" is completely unobtainable and to imply that it is is irresponsible.

Thom Yorke (kinda) agrees.