The Metropolis

Olympic heat proves too much for cancelled Big Chill

Mike Bonnet | Friday 20 January, 2012 13:16

_{These guys will just have to watch the modern pentathlon instead this year}


Convinced he was suffering from a terminal disease in series 1 of Peep Show, Jez (Robert Webb) records a last will and testament in which he approves his own posthumous appearances at numerous festivals except the Big Chill, which he once attended and, well, apparently didn’t think it up to much.

That was 9 years ago; Jez survived, and with an eighth and ninth series of the sitcom already commissioned it seems Peep Show will be with us for a few years yet. The future of the Big Chill however, is less certain. Melvin Benn, the managing director of parent-company Festival Republic, announced yesterday that the Big Chill will not take place in 2012, citing the weekender’s clash with the Olympics and consequent lack of artist availability and confirmations as reasons.

There’s reason to be a little bit suspicious with Benn’s explanation. For a start it’s hardly as if the London Olympics have come as a bolt from the blue, the city was confirmed as host back in 2005.

Likewise implying that sufficient acts are not available first week in August because of the Olympics seems unlikely. It’s difficult to imagine last year’s headliners Kanye West, the Chemical Brothers and their ilk downing tools throughout this summer because they want to watch the dressage or Greco-Roman wrestling finals. One would suspect that an over-saturated festival market and general shortage of disposable income also had something to do with it.

That said however, it is possible that the sheer scale and sense of occasion of the Olympics will be to the detriment of other events and businesses in the city and elsewhere.

Before New Year Andrew Lloyd Webber caused something of a stir in the arts world when he declared – with a melodrama reminiscent of some of his greatest hits – that the Olympics will cause “a bloodbath of a summer”, resulting in “nobody going to the theatre at all”.

Lloyd Webber’s predictions haven’t been accepted as Gospel, but a consensus seems to be building that despite the official protestations to the contrary, the economic salvation the Olympics promised may not turn out to be all things to all men.

Writing this I can imagine Jeremy berating me with another line from Peep Show: “Why do you have to bring worry and doubt into everything? You’re like some kind of mad evangelist for anxiety!” Perhaps though this is one subject the mad evangelists will be proved right on.

the Big Chill – Cancellation announement
Photo – somnambience on Flickr under Creative Commons

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