EarthDance Groningen 2000
Review by Marita

Four of us drove up from Amsterdam that night, and we were very glad that bug had been to college in Groningen not far from where the party was being held, otherwise i think it might have taken us much longer to find it. ;)

Parked the car and followed these little night lights along a path through trees and mud... waddled over a little wooden plank bridge that we found, climbed up the side of a grassy ditch, and wandered towards the big bright lights on the barge about 200m ahead through the mist.

All very surreal. hehe. it was starting to become a bit worrying when i spotted where the toilets were.... a port-a-potty on the other side of a trench of rather green and gunky water a few meters wide that was at the end of the grassy ditch that we had just climbed up further down, and could be crossed by walking across 2 very unsteady looking planks of wood that were touching the surface of the water when you put your weight on them.

Crossing from the top of the ditch across the foot wide gangplank thingy to the barge was hairy enough for me too. So i decided there and then that Matt and Remko had defected and had chosen this venue as a punishment to the wayward people of our society to ensure that they would just say no! to psychedelics especially if they wanted to stay dry and warm. ;)

The 'venue', if you can call it that, was a lil' barge in the middle of nowhere, literally, no exaduration, and the party was being held in the cargo hold. =) I can't remember what time we got there, but matt was djing and it was just the time when he had to play the 'earthdance ditty', which i'll have to admit was a load of tripe. hehehe. But it was obvious that the music could *only* get better after that. ;)

The decor there was pretty groovy. all the walls covered with backdrops. the crowd was dead friendly, between 125 - 150 peeps there, perfect for the size of the place, but because it had been such a small party, and tickets were by reservation only, it was more or less all friendlies of Matt and Rem that were there. so although i didn't know everyone, i did know a lot, and recognised lots of faces from other parties too. =) very good atmosphere. *loads* of fun. =o)

I had missed Matt's set unfortunately. and John Phantasm was supposed to play, but couldn't make it (this is the 3rd time something's gone wrong when john's been supposed to be playing. are you doing this on purpose John??) ;) but sent over John junya instead. and he played a really good set. beat matching was great, track selection was great, no minimal tracks to be found anywhere in his set at all. just complete full on full bodied madness. big thumbs up for Junya. =)

Mitch took over from Junya and played a very funky groovy set. that was really very good. he was on flying form. the new mumbo jumbo tracks went down very well on the dance floor. =o) unfortunately my legs decided to pack it in about an hour before the end of Mitch's set, so i had to do the sit thing.
Surprisingly enough, i did manage to brave the gangplanks and bockidy bridge to the loos on a number of occassions, and i didn't even fall down the grassy bank, not like *some* people, ay bug? tom? *titter* i heard afterwards that some girl did fall in at the very end of the party, and she had been dead sober! maybe that was the reason. ;) hehehe

At one point on the port-a-potty side of the bockidy bridge, i was just about to waddle back over to the party, when someone came out of the bushes and trees behind us and asked how to get to the party on the other side. he obviously hadn't seen the planks of wood. i explained to him, and told him that we'd have to cross one by one cuz otherwise we'd all end up rather wet. we had a torch too, so we could light up where you were walking. i had just reached the other side when i heard him say 'ah yes, it's very difficult to see this when you're on psychedelics'.

I froze in my tracks. last thing anyone needed was a guy tripping his bollox off falling into the muddy green gunk that was in that trench. =) so I turned around and talked him very gently over the planks, step by step. we were successful in getting the guy safely to the party thankfully. seen him later and he was in quite a state, acid casualty personified. but what really impressed me was the attitude of all the people with his behaviour. they were all so patient with him, he always seemed to have a minder hanging around, people took turns to shadow the guy and make sure he was okay. He tried slobbering over many women on the dance floor which at another party might well result in defensive behaviour or anger, but not this time. People would just take him gently by the elbow and guide him away from the offended female. =) what cool people. =)

Trang had just begun his set when we decided we'd better call it a morning and prepare for our 2 hour drive back to a'dam so i missed most of his set too.
all in all, we had an excellent night. i had been expecting to enjoy myself, but not to the extent that i did. we had an absolute scream. =)

Some photo's can be found at here (with thanks to Hugh) ;)
smiles all,
=o)

Marita.