Dear Mouse-Clicker!

This article deals with the personal experiences I had at this particular festival. I don't know what kind of people would read this - people who know how it is like, or people who don't have a clue. I've tried to give a picture of how this festival was like, from a strictly personal point of view. If you know Swedish, feel free to visit the homepage of Arvikafestivalen at http://www.galaxen.se.

Without further bla-bla, let's go right into the story. This was the second festival this summer I would attend for the premiere fois. To me, the Arvika festival is known as a punk/metal and techno/Electro festival, and when we arrived at the camping ground a quick glance over the field confirmed at least the former. It's like when there's a soccer game: every soccer fan gathers at the event or in front of the TV-screen... the Arvika-festival was sort of a punk-dome. However, I learned that there are also plenty of rock and pop bands present, and with a dedicated program for entertainment all over the festival area, like performance artists, lyricists etc. the whole event didn't seem to lack anything.

Our decade's last Arvika festival was also the biggest, with a total of 11000 visitors, incl. press and guests. An interesting fact is that they let people over 50 in for free! Considering it's such a small event, compared to other Scandinavian festivals, they put up an impressive band list, this year featuring more foreign acts than ever (the first festival started back in 1992). Besides a majority of Swedish groups were Henry Rollins Band from the US, Paradise Lost, Juno Reactor, Hallucinogen, Atari Teenage Riot, and DJ MG's all-time favorite, Motörhead. All in all there were over 100 live-acts and DJ's playing on 6 venues spread out in 'Folkparken,' just outside town. One venue was a dedicated dancehall with hip-hop, trip-hop, techno, trance, dnb... playing around the clock, so dance-addicts could tweak their bodies for 40 hours running if desirable.

We arrived Friday evening, and the fun had been going on for several hours already as we could clearly see when we came to the camping area: beer cans everywhere, and the stench of piss slightly beginning to surround the field. Surprisingly for us, we easily found a good spot for our tent, just close to the exit that lead to the venues. We opened a can of beer and followed the stream towards 'Folkparken.' Five to ten minutes later we found ourselves in front of the main stage, where Bo Kasper's Orkester were playing their pop-jazz type of music. It gave us a gentle start, putting us into the right mood. There was nothing else going on that we felt we had to see, so we chilled with our behinds nicely stored on a square of Swedish grass, at least for a while.

When we felt like having another beer, we checked out the stage next to the main one. The "Cirkus Apollo" was actually a circus-tent placed only a hundred meter off the main stage, but they didn't interfere with each other sound-wise at all. This tent was the base of a French performance crew that served beverages and showed a black and white movie with some obscure filming, i.e. a psychiatric patient showing grim faces and movements with his arms. They were playing the different film clips in continuous loops, so one could almost go crazy by staying there too long. Still, it was quite fascinating and a couple of clips were really funny to watch.

That Friday night Juno Reactor were supposed to play, but as it had happened a couple of times earlier this summer, it was canceled. Stepping in was Atari Teenage Riot, who were lucky enough to play twice! Their concert started with some awful squeaking noises for several minutes, then a scream "Atari! Teenage! Riooooooot!!!," and then the beats pounded down like thunder. It was pure madness, and it got crazier with more noise and singin'/shouting in German. Believe me, it was wild! So we didn't stick around there for too long. It was time to explore some more!

In the Rollercoaster, as the 24hr dance room was named, Thomas Krome was spinning some hard techno and the floor was pretty much filled up, with some moneymaker shaking going on (more like footstomping actually). Herr Krome has become quite big in Sweden as I understand, and he's building reputation abroad as well. We all were getting a little 'bit tired, and after stompin' a little bit we decided to go to rest, with the next day in mind.

On our way from Norway to Sweden we had a handful of rain, but from the moment we crossed the border the weather had been with us. This morning was no exception, and it was hot as hell in the tent. Unfortunately we had forgotten to bring my 4-person tent, and the three of us were fighting for every inch inside a 2-person tent, with the luggage stuffed over and under ourselves the best way we could. But what a relief once outside... I had a near orgasmic experience when stretching my limps. After some basic morning rituals, we took the party bus downtown to get a decent breakfast. There was a nice park where we sat down with our groceries, and we chilled for a couple of hours like Llamas in the sun. Unfortunately some crooked, dark shadows sneaked up on us and the rain pretty soon started pouring down. It didn't get us down though, as we could see the blue within our horizon, and by the time we got back to the festival the sun was smiling again.

Well, back at the festival we checked out what was happening in the Rollercoaster. Looptroop was about to enter on stage, a top notch Swedish underground hip-hop crew. They impressed yours truly with cool beats and themes, intense MCing and a sweaty act. Just too bad no more than 70 people came to experience it. Two hours later, Norwegian award winners Päronsoda were performing, and I was really looking forward to this one. But I was let down by their poor act. In fact, it ain't worth anymore than these bytes.

We used most of the time after this to have a few beers, wander around and meet people. There was plenty of stuff to do. You could watch the climbers taking on a 10m high climb-wall, or you could try build a tower of bottle-carrier cases while climbing it - trying to get as high as possible. Lots of stands offered food and cheap goods, and there was always music on some stages, each one with their own music theme. I already mentioned techno, but there was one for heavy metal bands, rock bands, cultural/folk and poetry as well. The whole thing was like a Roskilde-miniature. Also, the price was equal to one single day at the Quart-festival, camping and every band included!

The hours went by quite fast, and we couldn't miss Bob Hund - a great Swedish rock band with an original approach and a wild singer. One of his trademarks includes putting the mic down the front of his pants (or even trousers so to speak) during instrumental parts, and jump spontaneously around the stage. Probably Bob Hund gave me the best live-performance at this festival, and they completely blew away the thousands of fans.

Next up was finally Motörhead! We had been waiting for this. Not that we're fans, but we couldn't miss these living legends of power metal! We soon realized it wasn't that much fun, as we couldn't recognize any of the songs, but at least we had seen them live. There was more metal to come that night in form of the Rollins Band. I'm telling you, this Henry Rollins had an impressive shoulder to shoulder span. He was like a Spanish bull, and he boasted of energy. One of their songs was written to express disgust over an inhuman act that was committed in the States some time ago, where some brainless people had hooked a black man to their car and dragged him for 5 miles. Cruel images appear every time I think of this grotesque violation. What drives people to do such a thing? I don't know what happened with the men behind this devious crime, but I think I wouldn't care if Henry Rollins could have it his way, dragging them for "500 miles," as the song was called.

It was getting dark - no wonder it was 2am before his band finished up. During this concert two of us had been to the Rollercoaster to check out S.U.N. Project, a German trance act. They had a nice start on their set, with alien masks covering their faces and playing guitars and electronic drums, but we got tired of their songs pretty soon, since none of us is that fond of trance. Despite this, we were determined to stay up 'til 5am to catch Hallucinogen. I'd heard a lot of good words about him, and thought it might be worthwhile to stay awake. The only problem was that they were already taking the main stage apart, and all the stands were shut down as well, so there was no more beer to get hold of (as if that would do any good). We clinged to what we had said - maybe regretting - but we kept on waiting... and waiting... and eventually we fell asleep. When we woke up, it was darn cold, but still an hour until Hallucinogen were on. My friend caved in and went back to the tent (the third one had gone off with a woman much earlier, this Bastard). So I was left alone, for another endless period in my life, similar to those awful outpost/guard tasks in the army *chills*.

To cut an already too long story short, I made it! Tired as tired can be I stayed thru the concert only to find out that I could have done well without it. I'm sure those who dig goa trance dug it, but for me personally I wanted to dug goa trance the deepest grave.

So I crawled into the tent and dug myself into the sleeping bag instead. The next day we were outta there, spending our last Swedish currency on cheap cigarettes and booze and candy... can't leave Sweden without. In Sweden, you must understand, these things aren't as heavy taxed as in Norway - it's like half the price, so it's almost a sin to leave without. Talking about sin, another nice attribute about Sweden is that there are porn shops. Just before the border you can get all kinds of movies and equipment. I don't know who's the worst: the Swedes who so naturally produce and sell those goods, or the Norwegians who so eagerly come to buy them.

Now screw you, I'm out!

Per Arne
October 1999