Along with Sonar, Snowbombing. Koneisto and Dedbeat, the Big Chill is one of the more appealing events on the overcrowded European music festival calender.
The pleasant, low key vibe of the event - a leafy charming location (Eastnor Castle this year), a friendly atmosphere and a laid back music policy - is just too good to refuse for those who dig more leftfield dance sounds, and an older crowd bored with the unnecessary excesses of techno parades and big room raves.
The more mature side of the festival was overt from the beginning in the wealth of healthy vegetarian food, hordes of kids and families and high profile anti-litter campaign.
Politeness was paramount; even the security guards sounding apologetic when they asked to see our wristbands - Creamfields this wasn't.
Thankfully, amidst all this conscientious behaviour, some subversive elements existed. Cross-dressing was abundant (perhaps something to do with the Dressing Up Tent), as was the exposure of bottoms - all men, natch.
Thus we witnessed a man in a pink maids outfits pull a moonie; another strip down to his pants, climb into a bath full of plastic bubbles and start rapping; and yet another drop his entire lower garmentry in the middle of the Bombay Sapphire tent to expose unimpressive, drug-addled genitalia. Great stuff.
And in between all these cheeky shenanigans, of course, was the music.
High calibre acts like Tim Love Lee, Nitin Sawnhey, Quantic Soul Orchestra, London Elektricity, Ty, Bembe Segue, Matthew Herbert's Big Band, Nightmares On Wax, The Cinematic Orchestra, Chungking, Fila Brazilia, Tom Middleton, Bugz In The Attic, Mr Scruff, Catskills, Roots Garden and Hexstatic provided the just-right grooves over the weekend, catering for the supine and the shufflesome.
There were a few vexations too. The Big Chill Bus getting everyone to the train station too late to catch their last train on Sunday evening, for example. And our neighbours, who will never be forgiven for waking us up with bellowing trance early Monday morning.
Then there was also the indelicate smell of the toilets, the worse-than-terrible comedy tent (why?) and the man who threw abuse at the Cinematic Orchestra as they prepared to play what was to be one of the festival's highlights.
But this was pretty much a hassle-free event, full of love and tunes and silliness. A shining example of the way things can - and should - be done.
