review: Scumtek 2005
Well, what a fucking party! I was panicking beforehand tryna get the partyline, but I needn’t of worried, a mate of mine was doing some visuals for one of the stages and invited me along, although I didn’t know it was the tek we were heading to until the last minute.
We were drivin thru crackney and we were running late when we accidentally crossed paths with the convoy. Taking a risk, we decided to follow it (we didn’t know it was the right string of vans) and luckily enough we weren’t wrong. Followed the convoy slightly out of town to an old deserted football training ground next to a deserted leisure centre. For some reason when we entered the site we chose a strange route that instead of leading us down some gentle slope, ended up having to take on a flight of stairs. Which was fun. As we got there, al the vans (there was about 15) were loving havin some open ground to drive on after all that London traffic to worry about, and they were tearing round the site workin out who was goin where and doin what.
Eventually the rigs took up their positions around the outskirts of the field. This was well early, about 8 o clock, which is the earliest ive ever set up for a rave. Still, I was but a lowly projectionist, so I thought id leave it with the organizers. They blatantly knew what they were doin. anyway, the fuzz turned up almost as soon as we got in the door, hanging around the entrance. I thought we were fucked, but thanks to lack of left over cops from g8/live8/gaypride they weren’t doin shit. The sky had been over cast all day, and that was our only worry.
Milled around for ages waiting for something to start, set up the screen, and had a wander round all the rigs to see if I recognized anyone. Its always a bastard, because half the time at raves you meet people when ur fucked or in firelight, or some other distorting factor is involved. So im sure i saw a few heads i recognized, but I wasn’t sure or fucked enough to march up and stick my hand out. Plus they were all setting up and I didn’t want to get in the way. As we set up, the clouds parted overhead to reveal a beautiful orangey pink sky fading to the grey of dusk. I just sat back, sparked a reefer and drank my beer, bathing in the beauty of it all.
Any hoo, the music kicks off as the sun goes down, one rig starting at a time, slowly building up. I realise that now I wont be able to find anyone or recognise shit till the morning, and have a go on the visuals, and a dab of madman. By the time I poke my head back out, the rigs are in full boom, and there are plenty of folk clustered around each rig, getting their raving heads in gear. I was well impressed with the rigs, some had made proper effort with the lighting and decor, there was a beefy laser tracing out images on the leisure centre wall, properly huge, from one side of the field to the other. Munt had a nice little corner all cloaked in blacklight, gabbawocky linkup had a truly massive stack, and a lush banner proclaiming the Scumtek. I did find out who most of the rigs were, but ive forgotten, and it doesn’t matter anyway, they were all sick (although as usual, too much techno and not enough variation).
Over the night I got more and more mashed on beer madman and speed, and the actual time it was dark seemed to flash by. I had a stomp at nearly every rig I think, and bumped into a few party regulars. Then the sun came up, and the atmosphere was amazing. We all looked round at each other for that magical rave moment when we all realize for a second what the fuck we are actually doing. The site was so big it looked like a proper mini festival, there was burgers and beer on sale for that morning foodfix (I was in no need) and the sunshine was glorious. The best thing about being a VJ is that you stop when the sun comes up, not when the party finishes, and projectors are a million times lighter than rigs. I went off on a morning mission to try and I identify some people off the net. I did not bad, considering my state, found about six folk I hadn’t met before and a bunch of old regulars.
By about ten in the morn the drugs were wearing off, and my girlfriend was expecting me back a few hours ago to make her breakfast in bed (the promises we make, eh?) so we sorted out the van and headed south. Passed five pig vans at the gates, they were saying the party had to stop in half an hour, which I think was reasonable, apparently they met little resistance, which im not surprised at as the site only had two small exits and if they wanted to be proper bastards they could have been.
We rode south into the morning sunshine.
[if there is any content which isnt suitable for the web in the above report, gimme an im]
