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Big Chill forums closed...

Supine said:
Did you prefer your forum when only a handful of people contributed?
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It would have been nice if you'd backed up your curious claim that I was "playing a part in this countries advertising culture" first, but I preferred the Big Chill when there wasn't 32,000 people there and when there was far less corporate advertising, tent theft and over-flowing bogs. But that's just me.

How about you?

Your comparison with these fourms is hopelessly off beam as they're not a commercial venture. The Big Chill is, so people are free to demand that they get value for their money.
 
Supine said:
Why are media tickets given away? Advertising isn't it...
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Hardly. It's for a review with no guarantee of it being a good one or it ever being written.

How does that make me part of "this countries advertising culture"?
 
Reviews are used to advertise things for proceeding years I thought. Although negative press about toilets and stuff perhaps wouldn't be helping them ;)

I prefered the BC when it was 500 people at the first Lamar Tree, or the valentines weekend at Baskerville Hall, or the winter chill at the Union Chapel personally.

My main thought about the recent successfull festivals is that when things go wrong, like the disaster in Norfolk, they go really wrong. Fair complaints about toilets and cider pale into comparison when put into context.
 
Supine said:
The BC has been getting more and more sponsorship over the years. It's a shame but I suppose thats the way things need to be run these days.
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No, it's not. The Big Green Gathering isnt festooned with sponsorship for example, neither are these boards, for that matter.

To be honest, I find it rather depressing when people assume that the involvement of some big corporate is somehow essential for decent things to happen.
 
Supine said:
The radio station was sponsored by Ocean Spray, a fact I couldnt hep absorbing, but I havn't got a clue who they are or what it is!
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iirc Ocean Spray is a huge collective of Cranberry growers.
 
editor said:
No, it's not. The Big Green Gathering isnt festooned with sponsorship for example, neither are these boards, for that matter.
To be honest, I find it rather depressing when people assume that the involvement of some big corporate is somehow essential for decent things to happen.
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Couldn't agree more, but the big chill are an industry not a movement so i suppose it's natural for them, i mean how much does it cost to run a radio station? peanuts, does Ocean Spray really to sponsor that?

I've never really recovered from going to one of their sunday afternoon sessions at the 291 gallery, it was all so lame and not vital and they were showing this bollox pantheist global love film that droned on for hours, it's neither really chilled and meditative nor engaged enough to be exciting.
 
I remember the changes I saw at Glastonbury between 92 and 97, the Big Chill seemed somewhere similar i.e. at a point where it may be getting too popular. I remember being shocked one year at glasto when cash machines, orange and bbc advertising, and mass thieving appeared for the first time. The third time I went, 94, my tent was slashed and my camera and stereo were nicked. The bogs at Glasto were also overflowing with shit and piss too. They even pumped it into the dance tent one year. If the bogs and security are fine at Glastonbury now, they haven't always been.

So let's hope that the BC organisers can 'do a Glastonbury' and fix the problems of an otherwise fantastic event.
 
editor said:
No, it's not. The Big Green Gathering isnt festooned with sponsorship for example, neither are these boards, for that matter.
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The Big Green Gathering's run quite differently to the Big Chill, or Glastonbury. It's a company owned by shareholders and the express aims of the company are to further the Green movement by having a festival or other appropriate activities. Profits go into future BGGs. It explains it on the website, which is where I read it. Given the aims of the company and the probable character of the shareholders, it's not surprising that they aren't interested in corporate sponsorship. They don't even allow drink to be sold on site! (You can bring your own but for least hassle, make sure you bring organic vegan beer; or pour Tesco Value lager into a jerry can and say you made it yourself with the finest organic hops, malt and barley... :D)

edit: a friend tells a tale of everyone getting so pissed off with one particularly militant bunch of vegans (several years ago, dunno what year), and they (the other festivalgoers) ended up taking some of the site's fencing and fencing them in :) Truth or legend...?
 
hiccup said:
Out of interest, how did he address it?
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iirc he started a thread about cider and stated he realised the error of his apple based beverage supply decisions this year. I think he said they'd look at getting some local producers involved next year. Not as a strongbow replacement, just an addition.

I'm a red wine man though so didn't read it closely.
 
Velouria said:
The Big Green Gathering's run quite differently to the Big Chill, or Glastonbury. It's a company owned by shareholders and the express aims of the company are to further the Green movement by having a festival or other appropriate activities. Profits go into future BGGs. It explains it on the website, which is where I read it.
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thank the earth someone's doin something right, i've been goin to the BGG since 2000 and i reckon they're sorted , especially their music policy which is brilliant bands you've never heard of but are really good, well i liked it :cool:

oooops wrongspeed on bad login bollox,......
 
percival scrote said:
whats wrong with the Big Chill advertising itself buddy ?
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Err. Hello? I've clearly got no problem with the Big Chill advertising itself, but I'm not too keen on going to festivals and seeing uber-multinational corporates like wrangler having their name emblazoned all over the shop.
 
furry nose said:
thank the earth someone's doin something right, i've been goin to the BGG since 2000 and i reckon they're sorted , especially their music policy which is brilliant bands you've never heard of but are really good, well i liked it :cool:

oooops wrongspeed on bad login bollox,......
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hiya Furry :)
 
editor said:
Err. Hello? I've clearly got no problem with the Big Chill advertising itself, but I'm not too keen on going to festivals and seeing uber-multinational corporates like wrangler having their name emblazoned all over the shop.
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ok ok
 
Hello people

I am an inveterate Big Chiller, I've been to every one since the first Larmer Tree in 1998. It has got much bigger, much noisier and more corporate - that is true - but I think the essential spirit of the venture is still very much alive and kicking. (Some) Big Chill punters have a year long love affair (myself included) with the organisation and I think that is what sets it apart from other festivals. It has been a spur for a great deal of spin-off (non commercial) creative and social activity. To be honest, if it wasn't a bit different each year I'm not sure it would have held my interest so much. If it was still 2,000 people listening to plinky plonk I would have got bored by now.

As far as I know the Forum has been temporarily closed because someone was making erroneous claims that someone had died on the site. They are not particularly touchy about criticism. If they were, they would have shut it down in the run-up to the festival when it *really* kicked off.

I'm glad some of you enjoyed it, and sorry others didn't. fwiw I thought the toilets were a little worse this year, but not *that* bad. You just have to be a bit selective. The crime rate was definately up tho...
 
fancygirrl said:
As far as I know the Forum has been temporarily closed because someone was making erroneous claims that someone had died on the site. They are not particularly touchy about criticism. If they were, they would have shut it down in the run-up to the festival when it *really* kicked off.
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Hiya - nice to have you onboard!

Overall, I enjoyed the festie, but - for me - there were a few things that could have been a lot better.

Clearly, everyone's got their own opinions of what makes a good festie, but the growing corporate advertising also jars somewhat.

The location remains wonderful, and - hopefully - if they take on some of the valid criticism about the toilets, the security and the cider (!) next year's festival will be better!

I do find it odd that they closed the forums though - I'd never heard the rumour about someone dying but a simple 'sticky' thread or emphatic statement at the top of the forum would have quoshed any further speculation, I would have thought.
 
fancygirrl said:
I'm glad some of you enjoyed it, and sorry others didn't. fwiw I thought the toilets were a little worse this year, but not *that* bad. You just have to be a bit selective. The crime rate was definately up tho...
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Yes, some of the bogs were bad, but I never had too much trouble finding some that weren't - usually ones that had just been cleaned out (and let's face it, at a festival, you really shouldn't leave it until you're absolutely DYING to go, should you?!). And let's also give them some credit for providing better showers this year, which were separate cubicles and (generally) hot - admittedly, this did make for longer queues though.

As for the thieving, thankfully I didn't experience any myself, although that is definitely something they'll need to address - it was evident last year that security was lax (many of the Sat late night crowd in the Sanctuary were obviously fence jumpers) and that seems to have been the case this year too, although the late night crown in the Sanctuary were a bit less beered up and thuggish this time.
 
Bogs:

people were opening the doors, looking in, going yuk, coming out, and then other people used them as they were not always unusable, in my opinion
 
This was the cleanest bog I could find in a long row:

Still, bonus points for there being bog roll!
 

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editor said:
Hiya - nice to have you onboard!

I do find it odd that they closed the forums though - I'd never heard the rumour about someone dying but a simple 'sticky' thread or emphatic statement at the top of the forum would have quoshed any further speculation, I would have thought.
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I think it's also because the amount of traffic is massively increased (largely by newbies and randoms) just after the festival, and given that none of their mods are full-timers I think they don't have the time to deal with it properly and perhaps don't want to leave it to the regulars to deal with the trolling?
 
christonabike said:
If yer wanted a piss and you are a bloke, then that bog's no bother
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Sure. But if you're after a number two, you're not going to park your arse on that swirling pile!
 
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