It's time for our fourth instalment of bitesized guides to the best UK music festivals. In its 15th year and one of the summer's most diverse and creative festivals, The Big Chill is the place to go to enjoy all kinds of music: folk, rock, baroque, pop, reggae.
Name it and we guarantee it’ll be there.
When is it?
Friday 7 August to Sunday 9 August 2009.
Where is it?
Eastnor Castle Deer Park in Ledbury, Herefordshire.
Who’s playing?
This year, The Big Chill welcomes more than 130 bands from all over the world. Here are some of the confirmed acts –
Basement Jaxx
Amadou and Mariam
David Byrne
Noah and The Whale
Orbital
Chris Cunningham
Sixto Rodriguez
The Dennis Bovell Dub Band
Noel Fielding
Emmy The Great
James Brown
Telepathé
Dylan Moran
Check the festival’s website for the full line-up.
Essentials
Tickets: Weekend tickets, including camping, cost £145 for adults and £110 for students. A day ticket for Sunday is £70. Parking tickets for the weekend cost £7.50 (in advance) for cars and £50 for live-in vehicles. For further ticket information, check the festival’s website.
Sleeping options: Sleeping at festivals has never been so sweet. Do a music festival and a camping holiday in the same weekend! You can bring your own tent to camp (there are six campsites on location), bring a camper van and stay in the live-in vehicle field, or choose from The Big Chill’s four Easy Camping’ options, which include tipis and ‘podpads’.
Disabled access: Because this is an outdoor event on the Malvern Hills, access is difficult for anyone with a mobility-related disability. The organisers can arrange for some people to park in the ‘Accessible Camping’ area but spaces are limited.
Getting there
Bus: National Express are selling a combined festival and travel ticket for £155. If you prefer to buy your festival ticket separately, the company also runs services to Eastnor from 28 destinations including Birmingham, Brighton, Leeds, Manchester and London.
Rail: Ledbury, Great Malvern and Gloucester are the nearest train stations. Journey times are about 2 hours 30 minutes from London, 2 hours from Manchester and 1 hour from Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff.
Car: The festival is accessible via the A438 after exiting the M50. Follow the brown tourist signs to Eastnor Castle.
Check back next week for our Bitesized guide: Bestival.
Read all our bitesized guides to music festivals:
Bitesized guide: Hop Farm Festival
Bitesized guide: Liverpool SoundCity
Bitesized guide: Glastonbury Festival
