(posted 6978 days ago)South London Press
The Big Chill 2005
Feb 18 2005THE Big Chill festival favourites Punchdrunk are set to host a project incorporating art installations, live jazz, swing and dancing in a disused brick factory in Oval this month. Supported by The Big Chill, Punchdrunk's latest venture, The Firebird Ball, fuses Shakespeare's tragic play Romeo and Juliet with Stravinsky's mythical musical piece The Firebird to form a decadent romantic thriller.
The company transforms the cavernous depths of a long-disused edifice at Offley Works, not far from Kennington park Road, into a tangled wood - making a stage for 18 performers and musicians to perform on.
* The Firebird Ball is at Offley Works, Offley Road, Oval, SW9 until Sunday, March 27. Tickets cost £15/£12. Box office: www.bigchill.net.
Fact file
* The Big Chill is a multimedia festival, bar, club event and record label. The bar is at Dray Walk, off Brick Lane, E1 6QL. Tel: 0207 392 9180.* The Big Chill festival takes place at Eastnor Castle Deer Park, Malvern Hills, Herefordshire from August 5 until August 7 2005. Tickets cost £112/28, under fives free, £25 for camper van passes. lineup in April
* The Bill Chill line up for 2005 is to be confirmed in April. Acts to have played the festival in the past include Gilles Peterson, Norman Jay, Coldcut, Mister Scruff, Lol Hammond, Ross Allen and Bent.
* The Big Chill was founded by Pete Lawrence and Katrina Larkin in 1994 - it started off as a Sunday all-dayer in Islington's Union Chapel. The following summer it moved to the Black Mountains on the Welsh borders. 700 people attended.
* In 1998 The Big Chill moved to Dorset. After a one-off event at Lulworth Castle in Dorset in 2001, The Big Chill moved to its new home, the Eastnor Castle Deer Park in the Malvern Hills in Herefordshire in 2002. These days around 27,000 people attend annually.
* Acts who received early exposure at The Big Chill and have gone on to success include Zero 7, Gotan Project, Royksopp, Tom Middleton, Mr Scruff, Lemon Jelly (above), Fila Brazillia, Talvin Singh, Bent, Amy Winehouse and Goldfrapp.