I was there.

Hadn't been to a music festival since Roskilde '97, camping in a tent, all that. Charlie and I borrowed a tent from a good friend of mine and an extra sleeping bag from Karin and went off, july 2nd.

Here's what I wrote in the paper diary I kept...

2009-07-02: On our way to Arvika

After a mishap with the car (something was caught in the exhaust, but eventually cleared), Charlie and I got on our way to the Arvika music festival.

Sometime while on the road, when Charlie was in her own thoughts, I let my own thoughts drift, and somewhere in there, my thoughts drifted to Charlie and Karin... and my emotions went high, and deep. I realised that the deep warmth and closeness I was feeling was very similar to the very deep love I'd felt in my relationship with Eva... the only difference being that now, it's doubled! I couldn't help but feeling a little bit overwhelmed for a moment...

A couple of hours later, we finally arrived to our destination... we got busy parking, getting ourselves and our stuff on the bus to the camping and festival area. Arrinving there, we quickly found a spot for our tent and started setting it up. Didn't take that long, and when done, we could finally sit down, take a rest with some water and a cold beer.

A little later, we went out checking the festival area. Charlie was a bit surprised, she thought it would be larger :-). For me, the nicest surprise was finding this patch off the side with a lot of hamocs suspended between the trees, decorations a funny furniture made with left over stuff. What a nice resting place (picture on the left)!

We took some time eating, resting and reading the program for the 3 festival days. Later on, we went watching Detektivbyrån (picture on the right), a fantastiv new band that mixed accordion, xylophone, synths and drums with music inspired by Brel among others... I felt strangely at home ;-).

It's now about half past ten in the evening, we're slowly morphing into an atire for Nine Inch Nails (in about an hour) and Elegant Machinery, and I just sent Karin a message thanking her for her quick knot instruction, which helped a lot when I reajusted the tent...

For Nine Inch Nails, Charlie and I are going to meet up with our friends Magnus and Christina. I haven't seen them since January!

Now, to get dressed... with all the mosquitos around, should I change into my kilt? I wonder how wise that would be... ... Or screw them! Yeah, that's it!

2009-07-03 10.30ish

After getting to bed at about 2am, I woke up again around 7.30am, couldn't really believe it! And damn, it was warm!

It didn't stop...

Finally, I got out, after figuring that I won't get back to sleep... and I realised it's not as warm outside the tent... os is that just because there's a breeze?

I'm sitting in the shadows of a tree near the festival area, enjoying an apple and a coke, recollecting yesterday and casually listening to people. Some are irritated that the festival area is closed, as that's the closest path to town, and they understood they had to walk around the huge camping area to get there...

Yesterday night, Charlie morphed into a beautiful goth girl (picture on the right). I was a bit taken aback when she came out of the tent... and honestly, I was divided, and couldn't quite figure out why at that point... She did warn me that it came with a persona, and I now understand that's what I sensed... and I'm not sure I liked the persona so much, it felt... harsh?... or like a brat?... can't quite put my finger on it.
Fortunately, that persona (or that version of the persona?) didn't hold for long, as Charlie broke into the warmest of smiles, and I remember thinking "She's back!" as if someone had taken her away from her body for a bit... and maybe that's what happens when you take on a persona (or it takes over you)... I gotta remember that she is an educated actress and good at it... She was beautiful though

Anyway, later on we went to join our friends. They were watching Röyksopp and we caught up with them at the end of the performance. Beautiful Magnus and Christina :-). On we went to watch Nine Inch Nails.

Watching Nine Inch Nails was fantastic, and overwhelming, and sometimes took an effort. You see, last time I listened, and I did a lot back then, was the darkest fucking year of my life. I used every word, everything to beat up on myself. While the memories washed over me when Trent sang the words for Hurt, I also listened to other songs he sang, like I am today, and noticed that I interpret them differently now, almost as empowering... and I guess it just mirrors who I was then and who I am now...

After Nine Inch Nails, Elegant Machinery was ajoy to watch, listen to and dance with. The perfect ending, a happy blend of tunes that remind you of Yazoo, Depeche, Kraftwerk, Human League and some others

11.30

Charlie just called, she's up, has done some yoga and is in the shower line. We decided to join for breakfast a little later.

On with the day!
Oh, clouds! I guess it might not be as warm today after all...

2009-07-04 12.28

Woke up a little later than I did yesterday... thank the gods!

Yesterday was ... interesting. The weather was undecided, quickly switching between sun and pouring rain. That's fine though, it allowed for a cozy hour in the Libanese café tent to the sounds of DM songs being played nearby and being nerdy on DM history.
Then we went to listen to Emil Jensen (picture on the left), a brilliant comedian and singer/song-writer.
Later on ... nah, you know, it was uninteresting, I wasn't terribly impressed by what I listened to, and I was damn tired. What was mostly noticeable in the whole area was the build up for what was to come...
But before that, we joined one of Charlie's workmates, a cute blonde that was dressed like Alice in Wonderland and green rabbit ears, calling herself "Alice in Sallad Land"
Some food, then we went to the event everyone was building up for (in the program, there is NOTHING else happening at the same time)

DEPECHE MODE

Oh my, I believe everyone was there, the place was packed!
We had wisely place ourselves on a slope a little to the side, the view was as perfect as we could get.
New songs I didn't recognise were mixed with good old ones. I broke into tears when Martin sang "Home": "And I thank you, For bringing me here, For showing me home, For singing these tears, Finally Ive found that I belong here" or when they played "Precious" (with Daniel Ladinsky's beautiful I Have Learned So Much being slowly typed on the screens), which always makes me think of Jacob...
Let's just say it was a fabulous performance... ended perfectly with "Stripped" and "Personal Jesus".

From there, we went on to watch Fever Ray, a magic performance I probably didn't appreciate enough. I'll have to do some discovery...

Oh yeah, Christina joined us before the DM performance. Charlie saw her first, and today, she amusedly told me about my excited reaction ("Where? Where???")... I guess my colors are showing ;-). Anyway, we joined up with Magnus as well a little later on.

I'm currently feeling a bit rushed, so my story gets brief. Plus I'm hungry. Suffice to say I ended up having some middle night beer with Magnus, Christina and their friends while Charlie chose to go back to out tent. Sent Karin a sweet goodnight before that.
After falling asleep twice (Christina informed me), I sleepily went back to our tent (finding a shorter way, yay!). *plonk*

Time to get myself ready for the day.

Did I say I'm hungry?

13.17

Can't stop writing!!!!!

I just looked at today's schedule and my selection of shows. I gotta be nuts, I'd have to watch non-stop from 17.30 to 02.00, that's more than 8 hours! And my legs are already tired from yesterday! I've got to make sure I get to sit, I think... or pace myself somehow...

Today, my T-shirt says "We don't have to think like that ny more."

And that's the end of what I wrote on paper... I just didn't have time for more, I was tired. The last day, we listened to some brilliant poets, to some nice bands, I got disappointed with KoRN, got to sleep, woke up the next day, we packed and got on our way home in some rain... Back to happy kitties and back home... Home sweet home... and sweet bed

As an epilogue, a few days after we got back when I went over to Karin's, I surprised myself saying "Home sweet home" there as well... and I gotta say I liked hearing myself say so...