Party Vibe

[6 june 1998]
courtesy of marita*

Place : Wijk Aan Zee, The netherlands
Location : The beach

……which was looking a bit dodgy cuz we were having terrible lightening and thunder storms here all day friday, saturday morning, and again saturday evening. It wasn’t looking promising, but we agreed that we’d wait and see, as it was only about half an hours drive from Amsterdam anyway.

And sure enough, at 10 or 10:30pm, it was looking okay. No clear skies, but at least it wasn’t as dark and foreboding as earlier on in the day. So we phoned up X-ray and Stella and told them to come around to our place, and we’d go! Which they did, and we headed off, with 2 finnish friends of ours, Petteri and Niila, following in their van behind.

Our -ahem- ‘half an hour’ journey turned into a slightly longer one when we first made the same mistake as we did last year, and didn’t take the correct road initially off the highway, and ended up driving back. That didn’t make much of a difference, but then when we got to Wijk Aan Zee and drove towards the road to the north pier, it was completely dug up and blocked off. We couldn’t find another road heading the way we wanted, so we kinda drove around Wijk Aan Zee a few times, and finally headed towards Castricum in hope of finding a sign post to head us in the right direction.

Not a hope. =o) We arrived in Castricum having not seen anything to point us in the direction we had wanted. Out with the map!! =o) And of course that helped. 10 or 15mins later we were on familiar ground, and driving down the road to the beach. And what’s that in front of us..?? The Shakti mobile!! =o)

Hello’s and greeting passed around, we headed off down the beach. They’d set the place up nicely, tent for dj’s and a small chillout, and a very crude, not very weather worthy bit of shelter made from some plastic, but it didn’t rain all night, we were dead lucky, and only at one point did I sit in around the dj tent, cuz it was warm and toasty in there, and i was freezing. =) They’d built up a fire as well, but there were so many people already sitting around it, it wasn’t worth the effort to try and squeeze in. We’d brought ground plastic, blankets, and lots of warm clothes with us anyway.

We’d just set up our base with blankets and stuff, when I had a look at who, what, where etc. There I am, standing on the edges of our ‘camp’, when I notice that Kristina is sitting on a sleeping bag literally 1 meter in front of me. =o) That was a nice reunion!

Luna-tic was already playing when we got there, so we missed the first dj, (and didn’t actually get a report whether he was any good or not), but Dave (luna-tic) played the best set I think I’ve ever heard him play.

Following him was Zen, whom I think also played a great set. The atmosphere there was very good, nice and friendly. There were a lot of the old party heads there that I hadn’t seen in a while. Spent quite a bit of the night catching up with people I hadn’t seen in about a year or so. Quite a few local drunks as well, but that’s the good thing with outdoor parties, you’re not stuck in a confined space with people you don’t want to be stuck with, there’s plenty of room to escape and avoid.

Walter didn’t work too well, cuz there wasn’t enough blacklight, but the troll with the flashing eyes went down a blast as it was quite dark! Made a few new friends with his help. =o) Him and dom’s flashing bracelett made a great team. *hehe*

Ran into Baz on the dance floor, who was having a *wonderful* time. =o) (banana’s baz!! bunches and bunches of banana’s!!!) *hehehe* Our Finnish friends enjoyed themselves so much, they put off their drive to germany until the last possible moment. (they had to start work in dusseldorf on monday morning at 6am). They have a handy habit of dropping into amsterdam ‘just’ at the point where there’s a nice party happening. =)

Danyel was last up to dj, and horray! He finally played well! The last times I’ve seen him play I’ve been a bit disappointed, he seemed to lack the talent he had a year or so ago, boring sets, very little melody, didn’t keep the crowd going at all. But saturday he seemed to be his old self, and kept the dance area full and hopping.

The rain stayed away all night, and dave was so pleased that he thanked Shiva by burning a replica of the staff or whatever that for example the infinity project used on the back and inside cd cover of feeling wierd? Sorry, i don’t know the official title for it, can someone inform me? =o) Anyway, I do recognise the symbol, and dave made his offering.

What tickled me pink though was when a guy I know, Pete, with a very Liverpool accent, turned and asked me what they were burning the farmers pitchfork for. =o) It wasn’t the question that made me laugh, it was the description of the staff. =o)

All in all, it was a great party. I reallyS enjoyed myself, I think everyone I was talking to enjoyed themselves as well. We left somewhere around 10 or 10:30am on sunday morning, and just as we were on our way back up the beach, the first rain started to fall. perfect timing – for us anyway. =o)

So nice to be able to find the odd party in Amsterdam like this one, with friendly folks and atmosphere. May there be many more!

groovy grins!
=o)
marita.