The Big Chill 2008 - Rizla Invisble Players arena

United Kingdom | | 03 August 2008

The most recent stop on the Invisible Players tour saw the Rizla musical van make its Big Chill festival debut in the beautiful setting of Eastnor Castle Deer Park in Herefordshire.

Heavenly Jukebox kicked things off, warming up the soundsystem and the crowd in equal measure. These upbeat summer tunes set the tone for the rest of the weekend with the arena attracting a full-capacity crowd of smiling, fancy dressed, well-up-for-it party people, determined to make this a very special weekend.

Queen of the Breaks, Annie Nightingale, pushed the arena to new definitions of capacity with a raucous breakbeat set, lining the crowd up to be knocked down by Richard Norris (one half of Beyond the Wizard Sleeve with Erol Alkan) laid-back sunshine California Soul. Invisible Players stalwart, Greg Wilson made his weekend debut with a special 20:20 Vision set featuring tracks from his latest CD release before Justin Robertson took the reigns to round off the first day with a banging set of tech house.

A lot of familiar faces made the trip back to the Rizla Arena early on Saturday to ensure that they weren't going to miss out on the party. Many new and several extravagant costumes also flocked to the arena, everything from pirates, tennis players, muscle men and even a basset hound! Stuart Patterson treated the arena to a very special Deviant set, which attracted a swelling crowd in the afternoon sunshine. Greg Wilson took over with his legendary reel-to-reel system and delighted partygoers with rare edit after rare edit. The Horse Meat Disco boys kept the crowd grinning with their blend of Italo-Disco before legendary US house maestro Derrick Carter set the arena alight with his only UK festival set of the summer.

Sunday's slight dip in the weather only made the crowd more resolute to have it in size triple-XL, as Kid Acne played his mix of classic hip hop and party tunes keeping feet busy and arms swaying. Dissident Records very own Andy Blake took over the controls in the iconic Rizla musical van to belt out a fantastic blend of disco and classic house tunes. The much-hyped Disco Bloodbath showed why they are causing such a stir as they took the party up a notch with a superb blend of upbeat disco that had the arena rocking. It was down to the original Invisible Player and hacienda legend, Greg Wilson, to round off the weekend with his unique style of electrofunk that left the crowd begging for more.

Next stop for the tour Bestival..