We’re talking to Chris Coco, the creative director of The Chill Out Tent about this new project, as they approach their fourth streaming event on Sunday 26th July. This international, chilled crew have been curating awesome streaming events over the last four months, let’s find out what it’s all about?

1. What / who is the Chill Out Tent? Is it actually a tent?

The Chill Out Tent is a virtual online festival, a mixture of music, films, arts, interviews and talks. It’s going to be an actual tent when we go out into the real world again, hopefully next summer. It’s also a community of artists, musicians, DJs, music lovers, and people who like to have very good quality parties once in a while.

2. What was the inspiration for the Chill Out Tent?

I saw the first Defected streaming event at the beginning of the Covid 19 lockdown and thought – wow, this is great, but wouldn’t it be fantastic if they had an alternative space playing different music. So I decided to make that happen. It has also turned into an opportunity to put in to practice ideas that me and my sometimes too chilled Balearic mates have been talking about for years – making something collaborative that can house our diverse tastes and reach out to all the people who like to ‘chill’ and listen to interesting music but don’t quite know where to go to do it.

3. Who have you worked with in your events so far?  

We’ve collaborated with quite a lot of people so far, there’s Richard Norris, “Phat” Phil Cooper, Rune Lindbaek, Pete Gooding, Ruf Dug, Calm, Kenneth Bager, Rob da Bank, Gallo, Pierre Estienne, Je Suis Anglais, White Lab Records, Ariel Cherec, Peter Croce, Blair French, Dor Wand, Rusty from Soma FM, Ki Oni from Dublab, Roger Bong, Music for Beaches, Jura Sound System, Maa, Lone Star Crew from Tokyo, Baliaric FM, Maarten Goetheer, Hear & Now, Mixmaster Morris, Sonido Tupinamba, Mr Scruff, Jon Sa Trinxa, Camilo Miranda from our first three events so far. Importantly all of these artists have also collaborated with other creatives; film makers, photographers, animators and many more…

4. When Is your next event?

Our next event is on Sunday 26th July from 18:30 BST, with loads of great stuff in the schedule

5. Why do the Chill Out Tent now?

Because now is the moment that we can do it, this is a moment of change and one of the positive things to come out of this crisis is new ways to engage online. In some ways it’s a good time for introverts, you can contact people virtually, party at home and make more things to share with the world.

6. What can we expect from the Chill Out Tent in the future?

I think streaming events are here to stay. When it’s possible to get back into fields and clubs we want to be there, wherever there is, but also using all we have learnt about streaming to share those live events around the world online. We’ll also keep doing bespoke streams, keep making new content with music people and visual artists, show music related films and documentaries.. There are a lot of plans!

7. Does The Chill Out Tent have an actual / spiritual home?

I think TCOT has a few imaginary spiritual homes at the moment. In my mind it is already a physical tent, somewhere up a hill at a big festival, doing all the things we’re trying to do online in that space, open 24 hours. It’s also a shady version of the tent on top of a hill in Ibiza, filled with people watching the sunset.

8. You’ve been granted 3 wishes to create your ultimate Chill Out Tent;

A – The perfect venue?

The tent we are designing is going to be perfect…

B – Your perfect artist / act lineup?

I have a very long list for that which we aim to work through over time but the first ones that come to mind right now are; Laraaji doing a meditation, Beverly Glenn Copeland live, Mildlife live, Larry Heard live, Wolfgang Tillmans doing bespoke visuals, a Q & A with Brian Eno and Severino from Horse Meat Disco, Heidi Lawden and our imaginary resident DJs Camilo Miranda and Sonido Tupinamba doing the after party. That would be nice for day one!

C – Your perfect guest list?

Everybody’s welcome (with one caveat obviously, no dickheads). In the tent everyone is equal, everyone is a VIP. 

Follow the Chill Out Tent on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Spotify, Mixcloud.

To give you a flavour of the Chill Out Tent’s music policy, here’s a play list from Chris, come on in…