Party Vibe

Boom Festival, Portugal
11 – 16 august 2000
Courtesy of marita*

We got there on thursday the 10th, around 2pm, there were quite a few ppl there already, but we met up with andy weisner and we found quite a decent enough shady spot to set up camp. we’d just gotten our gazebo erected, (sounds kinda suggestive that… but however. giggle) when andrei came dancing up. nice timing,there was still a relatively shady spot for his tent too. =)

That night (thursday) the campsite was rudely awoken by a collection of drummers that went on from 1am – 3am, regardless of how much ppl complained or asked them to shut the fuck up. in fact, when ppl did shout at them to cut it out, they’d cry out ‘sorry!’ and then start banging the drums even louder. and some woman started wailing too. they were close to being throttled by the rest of the campsite. and that wasn’t the last we were to hear of drummers as you’ll find out later….

We all finally got to sleep after 3am when they’d stopped, when at 5am we suddenly bolted awake again… someone was blasting joe cocker on a very loud system. timo’d had enough, so he got dressed and went to have a look. he came back 10 mins later to report that it was the sound engineers fine tuning the amps for the sound system on the main dance floor. hehe

Matt and darin missed all this of course, cuz they were parked in the campervan area, but they had problems of their own – 3 or 4 different sound systems blasting out hip-hop, reggae and a couple of others constantly. hehe

Innieway, next morning we found ourselves rather surrounded by tents that hadn’t been there the day before. =) seemed we had set up camp in a very good place, lots of ppl on their way in were passing this way, so we ran into tons of ppl practically on their arrival to the site. =) jason c strolled past, and then out of the blue thew and jessica arrived and set up tents very close to ours too. =)

Turns out that mike bruton was camped right in front of us too, but we hadn’t realised until we were standing around laughing at thew and jessica’s attempts to put up the tent. 😉 so it was a regular little 604 village without ever intending it to be. =)

We headed on down towards the chillout on friday at 17:00 for the 604/psy/psytrance meetup, but they turned us away and said that it wasn’t ready yet, and to come back at 18:00. which we did, but they said that it still wasn’t open, at which point we decided that it was a bit pointless and that we’d just go with the 2nd meetup planned for saturday at 17:00

Music started up on friday at 20:00 with the star sounds orchestra. that was quite a nice opening, followed at 23:00 by p-mac. i can’t honestly say whether he impressed me too much, i can’t remember. next up was domino at 02:00, and even though i’ve heard better sets from her, i enjoyed her all the same. the electric melon played at 05:00, but i honestly can’t remember them at all. i’ve a feeling that i went back to the tent area at that time. john phantasm was due to play at 06:30, but couldn’t make it, so mitch (kuma) was successful in blagging a set in his place. 😉 now that was a great stomping morning set. i remember really enjoying that. mitch and mick chaos did a bit of a tag session for a while, which was also great fun, and mick played a bit himself for a while too. we headed back for some sleep then though, and missed amrit and zen. but from what i heard they both played a bit too hard for the time of day, so we didn’t miss anything much.

Headed down to the chillout again for 17:00, and indeed there were quite a few heads there. =)

Big waves to all! timo’s got photo’s of all that attended on his webpage. and for those of you that were at boom but didn’t make it to the meetup – matt, remko, amir, denis, carsten, jan, anders, alistair, and mitch – *slap*. silly buggers, you missed a good laugh. =)

Saturday night, we decided to get some sleep in and pace ourselves, so we missed out on jakov and alpha. we got up during texas faggott’s set, and heard it from the camp area, but it sounded way to weird hehe. we heard afterwards that they cleared the dance floor in record timing. we were in time for xp’s set though at 06:30. this was… ehm… an experience to watch. what can i say. the guy was tripping his bollox off. i enjoyed his set very much, even just for watching his antics in the dj booth. he was *twisted* up there! hehehe he trainwrecked enough tracks to make it worthy of remark, but he played some great music too. we were surprised he managed to get a set together at all considering the state he was in. =o) s-range did a good live set, although i seem to remember it dragging a little at the end, and then aorta took over to finish off the day. he played a really good set, and got a couple of encores. =)

X.P. could also be found wandering around the dancefloor later holding out a bag of acid for anyone that wanted it, and also had a little placard on a stick that read ‘DOPEINGS’, and had lil’ pictures of an ms internet exploder logo, (acid) and a tulip (e). at some point he was also discovered face down with his little sign beside him, after passing out. hehehe

Sunday. we slept through mat mushroom and zoo-b, but got up in time for bonky / fungus of light at 05:00. i *really* enjoyed their live performance. anti took over at 06:30, and i thought his dj set was really good, also one of the better of the festie. atmos’s set was very enjoyable although not outstanding. he was to play until 9:30, but stopped at 09:00, meaning that sam@chaishop wasn’t quite ready. =) there was a slight delay in sam starting up, but when he did, he really surprised me. he played a much better set than i was expecting from him at all. one or two tracks in the last half hour of his set became a little bit ‘anthem’y i found, but other than that, i can’t complain about his set at all. in fact, i really really enjoyed it. the rest of the dancefloor seemed to agree with me. =)

Monday, we wanted to make an all-nighter of it, but we were just too shattered to be able to get up, so we missed luke psywalker (whom i heard didn’t play brilliantly, but did play a very enjoyable set) and serge from total eclipse, whom i heard played one of the best sets of the festival. i was disappointed i missed that, but my body refused to let me get out of bed, so i didn’t have a choice. =) did make it in time for parasense though. i enjoyed most of their set, but they really started to drag out at the end. i found myself getting a bit bored before they were finished. migas played from 6:30 – 09:00, but it was far from a morning set. he played very dark pounding music, that didn’t blend with the sun rising at all. i didn’t enjoy that. james monro took over from him at 09:00, and i enjoyed his set much more. he was one of the few dj’s there spinning from vinyl. but i got my energy back during his set, and did quite a bit of bouncing. =) antaro took over at 11:30, but he was quite disappointing. i’ve heard much better sets from him in the past.

We were having such a blast though. at one point bug turned to us and said ‘what time is it?’ ‘about 09:30’ someone answered. bug started giggling and said ‘hehehehe, all the rest of them are in work now’ =oD it was such a weird concept though. there we were, sleeping until 04:30 or so each night, then waking up, having a cup of coffee, necking some drugs, and taking off to the dancefloor in a forest in portugal to dance for the rest of the day. =) sheer and utter bliss. =o)

And finally tuesday. christoff started at 23:00, and as far as i’m concerned he played one of the best sets of the whole festie. that was really excellent. joti shidu played at 02:00, but it was total pants. i had expected so much more from him. he played some really naff tracks. we were quite disappointed considering what we’ve heard from him before. logic bomb were excellent live. they really did the business. but i was really feeling knackered, so i went back to the tent at 6:30 to get a couple of hours sleep. i missed paulo, whom i heard didn’t really play a very good set, but considering he’s blind, he made a good hand of djing in the first place. i got back there in time for tristan’s live set. we weren’t sure what to expect cuz we heard it was his first time performing live, but we shouldn’t have worried, he rocked the place. and he was really enjoying himself too. i wasn’t extreemly impressed with his cd release, i found a lot of it a bit monotonous, but his live set was really wicked. finally nick doof took over for the last set, and he played some really old skool psytrance, and many people consider him to have been the best dj of the whole 5 days. he packed the dance floor, although we took it easy cuz we were saving our energy for the ‘surprise’.

What can i say. hehe. if i see another fuckin’ drummer within the next 6 months, i’ll headbutt him/her regardless. the speculations and rumours that had been flying around had us all excited, and i’d say 99% of the ppl there necked a load of drugs around midday or 13:00 in preparation for another 3 or 4 hours of dancing. miranda silvergreen was there, some claimed that simon p had been spotted, ppl were speculating that medicine drum might do a live gig, there were a million and one dj’s that could have taken over, but our surprise turned out to be the star sounds orchestra doing another performance on the main stage, only anyone and their mother that had a drum with them at the festival all climbed up on stage too, and they all slapped away on their drums, completely out of time with each other, for 2 hours. 2 fucking hours. mitch wandered up to the sound engineer to ask him what the story was, and he simply said that the music was over. we were devestated. couldn’t believe that such a brilliant 5 day festival could end in such a way. so we’re all sitting there with massively dialated pupils, looking at each other saying ‘er…. what’ll we do now then?’ 8o/ and besides a group of us going back to our tent area and sitting around under the gazebo chatting and having fun anyway, there wasn’t really anything that we could do.

But besides that rather disappointing end to the music, we had a brilliant time there. the atmosphere was again, so absolutely excellent. so many friendly people, lots of huge smiles, brill weather, the most beautiful sun rises, lots of shady trees, the most perfect location and attitude for a party that i’ve ever been to. neither timo or i got sick after boom, although it seems that the majority of people i’ve been speaking to did.

The decor really deserves a big mention. the backdrops and sculptures were really something else. lots of stuff to feast your eyes on. some really fantastic stuff. i couldn’t take my eyes off the backdrop that’s also the cover art for the moon spirits – lunar civilization compilation. they decorated all the trees in different themes. one of my favourite was the one with the pieces of glass dangling from it. ‘the glittery tree’ as i called it. and the lazers! wheee! they were excellent!! especially when they were projected through the wall of water. really amazing. =) and of course photon’s projections. these guys are talented. =) they had a huge projection screen up on the hill that dominated the dance floor again. only this time i didn’t loose my bearings and get lost when they rolled it up when the sun came up like 2 years ago…. hehe. timo took photo’s of some of the decor, the link is at the bottom of the review.

The sunrises this year were really beautiful! 2 years ago, sunrise took place in a mist and haze that took a couple of hours to burn off. sometimes it made the dancefloor and camping area look very bleak and unattractive. but this year was like in 97, when there wasn’t a mist or haze to be seen, and the moment the sun came above the horizon, it sent rays and shadows across the dance floor. it was really really astoundingly beautiful.

Did anyone notice the screen at the back of the stage where the live acts performed? just as the sun was coming up, it threw shadows of the trees onto the screen. it was one of the most beautiful things to witness. it was almost as if it was focused. kicking myself i didn’t get a photo of that.

Couple of things i feel it’s necessary to comment on though:

The water : although i’ve a feeling that this is outside the hands of the promoters. the water was off during some of the hottest times of the day. we gave up trying to have a shower, but managed to wash all the bits that were showing. =) i’m also starting to think the lack of water might also have had something to do with the size of the attendance, which brings me to my next comment.

Population : it was soooooo much bigger than pervious boom festies, which is to be expected i guess. estimated numbers are around 8500, which sounds approx correct if you consider the ppl that came just for the day/night or whatever. i thought it was just that ‘little’ bit too big. this was the first year that it was almost possible to get lost, and it wasn’t always easy to find people on the dance floor either. if it was me, i’d limit the number of tickets for future years. 😉 this might also help with the water problem.

Showers : even if the water *had* been working, there was no way that there were enough showers to cater for the amount of people that were there. if i counted correctly, there were even less that 2 years ago, when there were approx 5000 people less attending.

Toilets : same story. not enough, but also, i only saw them being cleaned once, and that was on monday morning if i remember correctly. what happened? 2 years ago they were cleaned every day at around 8 in the morning without fail. it was *not* a pleasant experience. swarms of flies trying to get up yer bum again, that made for some interesting flailing of arms while trying to relieve ones-self. hehehe but that of course led to people pissing and shitting in the eucalyptus forest behind the shower and toilet area. that’s not very pleasant either, and is not going to be a nice job to clean up.

Rubbish : it wasn’t collected once during the 6 or so days we were there. a big change in comparison to 2 years ago again, when it was collected very regularly. i personally think that if it had been collected on a regular basis, that people would have made more effort to keep the area clean. when we were tidying up to leave, the amount of rubbish that people left behind them was quite upsetting. we collected everything that was around our area into rubbish bags and brought them to one of the main rubbish points. it’s such a pity that other ppl didn’t take time to do the same.

Sprinklers : as much as they’re needed on the dance floor, and well appreciated, the ‘type’ of sprinkler used makes a big difference. the ones that were there this year were a constant sprinkling of water, which made the dance floor very muddy, and created rivers of gunk. i know i’m always comparing to before… but! ;)…. the type used 3 years ago, that sprayed far and wide in a circular motion, rather than one constant stream, seemed to work much better. they distributed the water much further and didn’t cause muddy streams. =)

But regardless of my complaints, i trust that our merry band of boom organisers have reasons for the things that went not so smoothly. i’ve got full confidence in them. =) considering this was a 5/6 day event, and there were *so* many people there, i probably don’t have the right to complain at all. on the other hand, this is like my diary of my experiences, so i write about everything that crossed my mind. =)

The *biggest* hugs go out to timo (of course) ;), bug & tom, andrei, matt, darin, andy, jason c, ron, terry, matt & rem, loula, jens, danny, thew & jessica, without whom the whole experience wouldn’t have been half as crazy or half as enjoyable as it was. hope i haven’t forgotten anyone in there.

Darin did complain about not being able to get a date… and that ‘chicks just didn’t dig him’, but saying that, his reaction on the side of the dance floor when i snuck up behind him and pinched him on the bum would have made any self respecting bum-pinching female run for miles terrified! ;))

(sorry d, i just *couldn’t* not include that) hehehe

But what was really cool was that almost everyone you’d ever partied with in your life, was there on the dance floor with you. such a wonderful gathering of people. but i did miss a few people that i had really wanted to be there – laura, chrissie, jeff, mike, and vadim. i was thinking of you though! and i had a bloody good dance in your honour. 😉

that’s it! finally!
(horray!)

yoh-hie,
=o)
marita.