I had already begun building the marble run out of cardboard poster tubes in the spring of 2010 for the Arts Play Festival at Loseley Park. At that event I had about 150 sections of run over a distance of about 100 metres. So, when I heard that my favourite gathering of creative and friendly people were setting up a small festival it was easy to offer it as an interactive installation.
The woody dell at the first venue for CIAF was absolutely perfect with a fairly tight group of trees on a bank. The run was about 50 pieces long with twists and turns, ladders and tunnels. There was also a small run of about 10 pieces in one corner of the bar. It got noticed there but with crowds it was bumped too much and stopped working by the Sunday. I also noticed that some people had not gone into the dell over the weekend and so had not seen the run in the woods. I resolved to make a free-standing structure that I could hang the run from that would work in the field.
The second year I was able to set up a much larger run on the other side of the dell of about 90 pieces. It worked beautifully but unfortunately that weekend we had a huge thunderstorm with torrential rain. The water got into the cardboard and everything that had been set up was destroyed. That’s when I decided to make the next one out of wood.
The next Chilled was at the Hop Farm in Kent. This time I was prepared. I had an extra member of crew, Rosch, to help me with the setup. I had a large oak tree in the field with a big branch to hang the run from. I had nearly 100 pieces of wooden marble run. I had forking sections so that there would be one starting point but 4 ending points. And I had pedestrian barriers to stop the kids from climbing on it. In the evening the barriers were moved to make a fence all the way around it, and during the day they were arranged to guide the folks to the start and end points. We had queues of people. It had become a major attraction!
2017 was the fallow year, so I took the run to a couple of other festivals. This was a nerve-wracking step for me as up until this point I had been demonstrating my crazy contraption to a group of close and very supportive friends. These were people that I had come to know and love for a long time. We have been watching each other grow over the years and I'm always proud of what we in our various capacities have achieved.
One of my favourite moments in all of this was at the end of the Thursday at the Bentley Chilled in 2015. I had been in the woods all day and using the back route to get to my tent. So, when I came out of the tents field over the train tracks and into the main field as the sun was starting to set, the sight that met my eyes was honestly jaw-dropping. Before this I had only seen Chilled at the Soul Camp site. That was a festival for just a few hundred people. But this..... this was so much bigger. A whole range of food stalls had been set up. The main stage was professionally rigged. The bar was a proper big top. There were shops selling the things that you find at festivals. Festoon lighting, a covered sand pit, a tent for the teens, workshops for the kids. It was a proper festival. And it had all been put together by my mates. That moment still makes me well up even now.
The Chilled family is awesome
Chris Colvill
The woody dell at the first venue for CIAF was absolutely perfect with a fairly tight group of trees on a bank. The run was about 50 pieces long with twists and turns, ladders and tunnels. There was also a small run of about 10 pieces in one corner of the bar. It got noticed there but with crowds it was bumped too much and stopped working by the Sunday. I also noticed that some people had not gone into the dell over the weekend and so had not seen the run in the woods. I resolved to make a free-standing structure that I could hang the run from that would work in the field.
The second year I was able to set up a much larger run on the other side of the dell of about 90 pieces. It worked beautifully but unfortunately that weekend we had a huge thunderstorm with torrential rain. The water got into the cardboard and everything that had been set up was destroyed. That’s when I decided to make the next one out of wood.
The next Chilled was at the Hop Farm in Kent. This time I was prepared. I had an extra member of crew, Rosch, to help me with the setup. I had a large oak tree in the field with a big branch to hang the run from. I had nearly 100 pieces of wooden marble run. I had forking sections so that there would be one starting point but 4 ending points. And I had pedestrian barriers to stop the kids from climbing on it. In the evening the barriers were moved to make a fence all the way around it, and during the day they were arranged to guide the folks to the start and end points. We had queues of people. It had become a major attraction!
2017 was the fallow year, so I took the run to a couple of other festivals. This was a nerve-wracking step for me as up until this point I had been demonstrating my crazy contraption to a group of close and very supportive friends. These were people that I had come to know and love for a long time. We have been watching each other grow over the years and I'm always proud of what we in our various capacities have achieved.
One of my favourite moments in all of this was at the end of the Thursday at the Bentley Chilled in 2015. I had been in the woods all day and using the back route to get to my tent. So, when I came out of the tents field over the train tracks and into the main field as the sun was starting to set, the sight that met my eyes was honestly jaw-dropping. Before this I had only seen Chilled at the Soul Camp site. That was a festival for just a few hundred people. But this..... this was so much bigger. A whole range of food stalls had been set up. The main stage was professionally rigged. The bar was a proper big top. There were shops selling the things that you find at festivals. Festoon lighting, a covered sand pit, a tent for the teens, workshops for the kids. It was a proper festival. And it had all been put together by my mates. That moment still makes me well up even now.
The Chilled family is awesome
Chris Colvill