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We’ve come a long, long way together – through the hard times and the good – and boy, oh boy were the crowd celebrating and praising headliner Fatboy Slim at Saturday’s sold-out Eden Session.
After presumably eating and sleeping beforehand, Norman Cook had everyone raving and repeating through an epic two-hour set packed full of hits such as ‘The Rockafeller Skank’, ‘Praise You’, and ‘Right Here, Right Now’.
The addition of special guest Charlie Boon was a sentimental one and signalled a ‘full circle’ moment for the St Ives DJ, who attended his first ever gig at Eden some years ago.
He flew the flag for Cornwall and warmed up the audience with a powerful and passionate performance he described as ‘meaning a lot’.
He was, after all, opening for one of dance music’s leading lights, Fatboy Slim, responsible for some of the world’s most spectacular shows and whose influence spans multiple decades – as evidenced by the generational range bopping along.
Charlie’s wasn’t the only guest appearance on the night, as celebrities including Bill Murray, Blondie and Bob Marley featured prominently in a score of mind-bending visuals that accompanied Fatboy Slim’s newest single, ‘Role Model’.
Freddie Mercury’s mercurial twang rang through the unique amphitheatre, built on the site of a former china clay pit, with samples of Queen tracks ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ bookending a typically energetic set from a DJ just a month short of his 61st birthday.
A nice nod to his surroundings – ‘I’m in Cornwall b***h’ – set the tone for an expertly executed, era jumping concert that included beats from across Fatboy Slim ’s 30 year spell at the very top of his game.
Adorned in a trademark Hawaiian shirt, the Grammy and Brit award winner had fans in the palm of his hand, having them bounce along to the beat before asking ‘how low can you go’ and strutting in style to ‘Star 69’ as the evening sun disappeared behind the iconic biomes.
CHAOS Radio were given behind-the-scenes access to some of the figures who ensure the Eden Sessions are an enjoyable and safe experience for all.
“We see a lot of people dressed up and coming to enjoy the Eden sessions,” said David Gill, a driver for First Bus, who have ferried festival-goers around the site and various stops in St Austell for the last ten years.
“Obviously we are very, very busy and the general public are coming from all over the country. We have five double deckers here at the moment and each one is full most of the time.”
Chief Superintendent of Devon and Cornwall Police, Ian Drummond-Smith, added: “We have got a good police presence here tonight because it is a crowded event [with] about 6,000 members of the public coming in.
“We are here to make sure the event goes off safely and deploying what we call Operation Servitor, a national tactic which is a mixture of officers in high visibility uniform and officers in plain clothes which we put into crowded areas.
“It allows officers to see who is coming in, just to make sure the event goes off well and everyone has a safe night. The purpose of us being here is to take out those people who might be bringing drugs into the event or any weapons.
“In addition to that, we do quite a bit of work in advance with the organisers around security, safety, design and other security systems. A huge amount of work, between both the organisers here at Eden and the police, goes into making sure it is safe.”
This was the second act in an impressive Eden Sessions line-up for 2024 that includes:
• Wednesday June 19, Paolo Nutini
• Saturday June 29, Suede and Manic Street Preachers
• Tuesday July 2, The National plus special guests This Is The Kit
• Wednesday July 3, Rick Astley plus special guests The Lightning Seeds
• Friday July 5, Tom Grennan
• Saturday July 13, JLS plus special guest Tinchy Stryder
To find out more and book the last remaining tickets, visit www.edensessions.com
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