Live at Borde Hill Summer Series – Nile Rodgers & CHIC

Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Borde Hill Summer Series, 13th August 2026

There are worse places to spend the hottest day of the year than Borde Hill. The huge Haywards Heath estate, with vast gardens and open skies, made a pretty spectacular setting for the first event in their Summer Series – and Nile Rodgers & CHIC wasted absolutely no time getting the party started.

With picnickers out in full force, a ten-minute warning was issued to pack away the blankets and clear some space for dancing. And it didn’t take long for that to become a reality as the first song up was trademark CHIC track Le Freak.

From there, we went on a whistle-stop tour through some of the most recognisable pop, disco and funk of the last 50 years. CHIC classics rubbed shoulders with numbers Nile wrote or produced for the likes of Sister Sledge, David Bowie, Madonna, Beyoncé, Duran Duran and Diana Ross. The set was packed with songs that seem to exist somewhere in everyone’s musical memory, with the crowd singing along word for word.

The band was seriously impressive too, absolutely nailing everything thrown at them. There was no shortage of big moments, but Bowie’s Let’s Dance was probably the biggest singalong/dancealong of the evening — an instantly recognisable 80’s classic that still sounds ridiculously good blasting out on a summer’s night.

There was a more emotional moment when Nile dedicated the Sister Sledge track I’m Thinking Of You to his late CHIC collaborator Bernard Edwards. It was a beautiful tribute, and he seemed genuinely choked as he spoke about his old friend and musical partner. A reminder that beneath all the glitterballs, grooves and seemingly endless hits, there’s a lot of history behind this music.

And then there’s Nile Rodgers himself. Still an effortlessly entertaining performer, he spends plenty of time interacting with the crowd, and clearly hasn’t lost any love for what he does. Watching him lead thousands of people through songs that have soundtracked decades of their lives feels less like a nostalgia trip and more like a celebration of just how deeply his music has embedded itself in popular culture. From the disco explosion of the 70s through pop/dance royalty, R&B and beyond, Nile has played a hand in an extraordinary amount of music — and his influence is very much alive and well today (thankfully).

Great surroundings, a hugely talented band, an enormous catalogue of songs everyone knows by heart, and a performer who still looks like he’s having a brilliant time doing it – for the initial night of Borde Hill’s Summer Series, it was pretty much an ideal start.

Catching Nile on one of his upcoming dates? Enjoy yourself (you will) and do not turn up without your dancing shoes.