On a glorious sunny day 250,000 people decided to join in on Europe's biggest beach party. With 30,000 party goers attending last years bash it was rumoured that nearly double that would be at the 2002 installment, but when a quarter of a million spectators turned up mayhem hit the roads, trains and sea front. Fortunately, the people stuck in car jams were in good spirits and with Darren Emerson and Jon Carter playing live from the Berlin Love Parade on the radio the delay turned into part of the festivities.

Line up for this mammoth occasion was Midfield General, John Digweed and Fatboy Slim, in that order, and it was incredible to watch a never-ending sea of heads bopping along to the lighter and heavier sounds of big beats while lasers darted over the crowd and sea heightening the experience.

There's been a reported drop in festival tickets this year, recent example is the cancellation of London's Essential Festival, so to see something with minimal promotion attracting the kind of attention a promoter dreams of you couldn't help but appreciate what had been achieved.

The man responsible for organising and even coughing up £100,000 of his own money into the pot due to the last minute pulling out of a sponsor was Fatboy Slim himself. Considered one of his favourite gigs, last years BBB was voted 'Dancestar 2002 Best Event' at the recent awards. Even with that title under it's belt no-one expected this year's overwhelming turn out.

With a man dying from a heart attack and woman seriously hurting herself by falling from some railings the size of the crowd did appear a little too extreme at one point, this was emphasized by the wise decision to pull the plug a little early. Unaware of the death at the time, Fatboy Slim said afterwards 'I never thought it would turn out like that, I've created a monster'.

Only a fraction of the crowd managed to see the tiny characters behind the decks but just being part of arguably one of the biggest beach parties in history was satisfying enough, and anyone complaining about value for money needs to reminded that the occasion was completely free.