mad cow

ACLA is an ordinary house with two floors. We came in through a hallway, where a table had been set up so that the two persons receiving the entrance fee (of 100 Swedish kronor) could sit down. We then went into something looking very much like the first entrance hall, only this was a bit bigger and it had been decorated and two loudspeakers playing some nice tunes were plugged in. A projector displaying the most amazing patterns up in the ceiling caught a lot of people's attention and I'm not really surprised. Even I was fascinated!

After the second room, we entered a room that connected to all the others and it was actually the main entrance hall (only *we* didn't enter the building through here). More loudspeakers, these playing the same music played on the big dance floor (but with a weaker bass which almost made our ears curl up as we stepped in there). Some original, really nice decorations like green dried cauliflowers, leaves and another projecting screen displaying psychedelic patterns and swirls on the walls and up in the ceiling. The cauliflowers were there in the beginning of the night but somehow they seemed to disappear as the time passed and nighttime transformed into daytime. I don't blame the thieves, the veggies would make excellent decoration even in someone's apartment.

Standing here, you could choose whether you wanted to enter the dance floor (and as you entered you also found a bar to the right) or head on towards the toilets, the back entrance to the bar (leading into a kitchen) or further on to the stairs leading you up to the attic. The main dance floor wasn't particularly big but I really admired what the guys (and girls!) had created with the lights. One huge mistake had been made in here; they had actually put a smoke machine up.

As I said, the dance floor wasn't exactly huge and there were no windows (none we could open anyway) so it soon became steamy, packed and very humid. The smoke made us all almost choke then and there, and it was no fun at all. If you went upstairs you found a breathtaking and charming attic with huge wooden balks and sloping roofs and the works! In one of the balks they'd hung a swing which I found myself occupying more than once. This was the chill out area, and some groovy tunes came from the loudspeakers. Even here, they'd done a swell job on the lights and it was magic sitting down in the big, cosy sofa and chill.

We arrived approximately 20 minutes after the party had started. Strauss started on the main floor. He played OK, but compared to what he usually plays it was quite awful. He explained later on that the schedule had been changed the last minute, he was supposed to play a lot later on, and he hadn't had the time to reorganize the tracks or anything. (The tunes he played would have went down very well later on, with that I can agree) He went off to play up in the chill out and I followed him like a puppy. The tunes he played upstairs were by far outdoing his lame excuse for a gig downstairs. When he went off downstairs, Dj Libra (Henke) took over the decks to play acid.

I got disappointed for the second time this night, it didn't sound at all like the acid I'd expected and kind of longed for. The building slowly got more and more filled as the hours went by, and by now there were quite a few people dancing and hanging out. The crowd on the dance floor seemed to fully appreciate Libra's set, but I went upstairs and had a go on the swing instead.

What we expected from the night was techno, acid and hard house. Two unknown (at least to me) dj's from E-Werk in Berlin had been booked, and none of the people I spoke to about it on forehand knew them by name. Our guess was that it would be hard house as that's the E-Werk signum. (or was, as they sadly had to close down and the last party held there was a mega event in connection with Love Parade) Anyway, the dj's were D.U.C.K. and Eva Cazal (the fact that it was a girl really won me over when I weighed pros and cons deciding whether I should go to the party or not) and if E-Werk played music like this, I am in grief that they closed down and can't understand what would possibly force them to do so.

Yowsa, this music was far from house (or what I define as house anyway!) - it was stompy yet powerful hard trance at it's best! They first played together, then Eva was to do an one-man (rather one-woman) gig and I'm sad to say that we didn't get to hear very much of it. A stupid idiot moved the pickup THREE TIMES (right in the middle of the track) until he had gotten her so completely pissed off, annoyed and upset that she stepped down, crying.

I didn't see this occur, rest assure that I'd done something about the guy then! D.U.C.K. continued on his own, and the rest was just as good as the beginning. The peeks were so enormously "peeky" (or how you say it!) and the vibe was....I get goose pimples all over just writing about it...so surely you understand that it was gooooooooooood !

I have always liked hardtrance, as a matter of fact that was what I started off listening to (do you all remember Oliver Lieb? Paul van Dyke? Cherry Moon? Drax Ltd?) and I admit that I still have kind of a sweet tooth for it. Now, of course we have to consider the fact that it was a small place, intimate, kind of "all-the-friends-were-there"-thing, not visited by cops and those elements always help when it comes to creating a good mood and great vibe. It was excellent! Unity, smiles as far as you could see, sweat, pumping tunes.... *sigh* Good ole days, eh?!

David, my absolute favorite when it comes to morning music (even though his style can't be classified as goa- or psytrance), started off with bad odds. The crowd was so pumped up yet so exhausted from dancing their asses off for a few hours at full intensity that I almost felt sorry for him as he took place in the booth. He did good, of course, (there's no such thing as David playing badly!) but the vibe vanished when D.U.C.K. (and Eva) left. Well, I can only speak for myself - and I went upstairs to the chill out.

Around 10 a.m. David had to attend a christening, and some local guys played around with the equipment for some hours. I didn't hear too much of this as I was upstairs chatting to people (how unusual!), moving to the fab chill out tunes and swinging so much I got dizzy. :) At noon, someone came running up, screaming that we should all come downstairs. Of course I went there to see what the fuzz was all about, and boy, what a nice surprise...it was Eva and D.U.C.K. returning from their hotel and they were going to play again!

Naturally, at this time, the people left were the absolute genuine crowd. Eva got to play her set without interruptions this time and play she could!!! This little slim and amazingly pretty girl played our socks off - literally! WOW! D.U.C.K. hadn't had enough earlier and did another set after her, and David, who'd now returned, handled the "wrapping-it-all-up" part after him.

I had had enough, but as we set the table in the garden for breakfast, we opened the door leading into the dance floor and I had to control myself to sit still when I ate my melon and the sandwich. The breakfast was by the way included in the ticket price and personally, these small things just make me sooooo happy! Being original and serving the guests as good as possible with small resources is the ultimate proof of desire to please the people.

(when will we all sit outside of Pakhus, with long rows of tables set, being served breakfast - or even a glass of water for that matter! - as part of the ticket price?! tell me if you hear about it!) Other small gestures were the free fruits (apples, bananas, pears, bananas) and free soft drinks we were served in the morning (they actually walked around handing it out!) I particularly liked the breakfast table; yoghurt, bread, butter, ham, marmalade, milk, coffee, juice, melons and ice cream.

No shortage whatsoever of toilet rolls on the toilets throughout the night.(many points for that one, guys!) Ok, the booths were no way near hygienic, but the No 1 priority is toilet paper. Another point-collector (!) is the fact that you got free water in the bar from when they started 'til the very end.

Summarizing the whole event and not leaving anything out, it'll look like this:

Dream organizers:
"Not until you give, you can receive" is a philosophy many of the guys organizing parties nowadays should practice. Another one is that it's the thought that counts and the thought is to go to a party to gather, dance, enjoy yourself and basically feed both ears, eyes, body and soul with some candy. The thought is not to go to a party to hear some music and get ruined doing so because of greedy organizers. The aim to please ought to be bigger than a well-filled account in the bank, at least if you know that the size of the account is on the expense of others.(*gee*, I got a tad bit upset here, don't mind me, but this is a great place to express an opinion and get away with it!)

Great music:
I guess it became even better as I'd expected only "half good"....but the dj's (Eva, D.U.C.K. and David) were sensitive to our needs and desires and tried hard (and managed) to please us.

The venue:
was just superb, and the sunshine and sudden after-summer warm weather on the Sunday only enhanced it all (yes, we sunbathed - in October!!!!). There's yet to be found a chill out environment as pleasant as a sunny lawn.

The people:
(except for a certain pickup-mover) were all nice & friendly, happy all the time, and they showed great resources of respect, caring, peace, love, understanding... :)

....and I'm giving this party 10 cauliflowers out of 10

mostly because of the red thread of care that spun itself through the entire night. I guess that things can get ruined just like that *snapping fingers* (thanks Nick!!!!!) because this was one of the rare "good ole days"-parties. Nowaday it seems to be more about the money than the music and the people.

sunshine, happiness & miles of smiles

~ chrissie ~