arvika festival 1998

My first ever festival in Sweden, and for sure not my last one!

great travel company
Thanks to Becky . Kim . Peter . Michael . Steinvör . Andreas . René . Tomas for being such fun company during the approximately 7 hours it took us to drive the rented Toyota Hiace from Malmö to Arvika on Friday afternoon/evening. I slept most of the way back so I guess I wasn't as fun company then =:)

ok weather
Well, it rained cats & dogs on Saturday evening/night but the weather was nice all Friday and during most of the Saturday as well. Moby did however apologize on behalf of God when heaven's gates opened up *totally* on Saturday evening and from then on, it rained like hell until early morning.

supernova
was sheer success! Out of all the live-acts and dj:s performing, none really played a bad set. It was hard and quite dark most of the time, but it was great and I'm not disappointed at all.

If I have to mention dj:s standing out more than the others, I'll have to say Sid Shanti and Zen. As for the live-acts, Synchro and X-Dream played just as good as expected and Orion also did great.

But, as I said at first - they were all brilliant. A friendly crowd, nice decos & video graphics and all in all a brilliant party experience.

vintergatan
In spite of me spending a lot of time in the Supernova venue, I did take the time to check out some of the concerts at Vintergatan.

eat static
The music was awesome, the decorations quite disappointing (just a huge brain...) and a crowd that loved every single minute of the set. Much harder and faster music than we expected, but it was a pleasant surprise.

backyard babies
There was one reason and one reason only for me checking Backyard Babies out ... yep, that's right - Dregen! =:) (the singer in Backyard Babies) As I couldn't see very much from where I stood, I soon gave up and went for a cider instead. Dregen was just as sexy as I'd expected, though.

moby
WOW! This is an amazing, amazing man and I almost fell in love then and there! =:) The energy, the charisma, the tempo, the vibe - he had it all going for him, this wonderful Moby. If anyone came to quietly check him out, I bet they danced away from there when he was done. I'm not too keen on his kind of music (except for 'Go') but his performance didn't leave anything to desire - it was simply overwhelming and almost took my breath away. The extra number he did was an excellent lesson in drumming. The rest of the gig was an energy kick, with the cute man jumping, running, shouting, dancing ... this was something I'd gladly see again. And again. And again.

sisters of mercy
Powerful rock at it's best. The organizers had timed it bad, and put on Ju-Ju Space Jazz in Andromeda at the same time as Sister's set, so I felt a bit split trying to decide which one to view. Due to the heavy rain, I spent the first half of Sister's gig running back and forth between Andromeda, Supernova and Vintergatan. I ended up at Vintergatan in time to hear a few tracks and the final track 'This Corrosion' and I sang along happily. After being forced to come back on by a crowd that just wouldn't take no for an answer in their desire to hear more of Sister's, they played a song that I didn't recognize. It was good though, and I'm glad I took the time to hear them out.

ju-ju space jazz
Ok, I only heard one track, but I promise that I'll check them out properly down in Portugal at the Boom festival! =:)

thanks to everybody involved in organizing this festival!

hi and bye to
Jeroen . Marcus . Jan . Greg . Sid . Morgan . Niklas . Linda . Rocco . Tindra . Denis . Thomas . Magnus . Thomas . Erik . Ellinor . Anti . everybody who feels left out

I'll be back next year!

Raindrops & Smiles

~ chrissie ~