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| The trip down to Arvika (Sweden)
was taken by train from Oslo. It's an comfortably
2 hour trip, that landed us in the centre
of Arvika. The rest of the way we walked in
the blazing sun. After a while we finally
got our wristbands and could set camp. The
weather was all nice and sunny....for a while. |
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| I was sharing tent with Lise
and Truls in Oslo Synth Festival Camp (OSF
Camp). We quickly got the tents up and tried
to plan a nice camp. Bad weather was closing
in on us, so we had to be fast to get ready
for the rain. And we managed just in time. |
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| When the first raindrops hit
the ground we were sitting nicely and dry
in our tents enjoying our beers, music and
eachothers company. Arvika has a policy that
says "No party tents", so we didn't
have a big space to gather everyone. |
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| After little while the rain
headed elsewhere and we could once again go
about the tasks of building the camp. 20 -
30 people were expected to live in the camp
and they were coming in during the evening.
The camping area at Arvika is set on an old
swamp(!!!) of all things, so the first rain
had already made the ground a bit muddy. |
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| We had covered most of the
ground with tarpaulin during the rain so that
our camp would be as dry as possible, and
it worked out very well. When other camps
was swamped in mud later on, our camp kept
quite dry and nice. |
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| We also had some neighbours
to our camp that came over from time to time.
The first time to get me to help them with
their tent. Quite funny that 4 guys needed
a girl to actually get the tent up! *Tsk tsk* |
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| Now all we waited for was the
the rest of the people to arrive to make a
flagpole so that the OSF flag could be hoisted
up. And at Arvika you just go out to the woods
nearby and axe down an entire tree to use
as a flagpole. (No party tents allowed, but
you can axe down trees? Swedes are strange) |
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| Since the concerts weren't
starting until the next day, and there's not
very much to do at Arvika compared to Roskilde,
all we could really do was to sit in our tents
and listen to music and drink beer. Not the
worst thing in the world to do on a summer's
night really.... |
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| It was getting really dark
when the guys finally had finished chopping
down a tree and could raise the flagpole.
A big hole in the ground was dug out, and
the tree "planted" into it. Up with
the flag, and it also had a blinking siren
at the top to light the way to our camp at
night. Very professional if you ask me. |
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| The next morning we were all
excited about the days ahead of us. More music,
beer and for a change - lovely weather. The
sun was blistering hot and continued to stay
that way for the rest of the festival. The
camp was crawling with life and we had visitors
at all hours of the day - and night. |
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| The first thing we did after
breakfast and beer (those being the same),
we headed for Arvika city to do some serious
shopping. And since the Swedes don't even
have proper beer in their stores, we were
off to the "Systembolaget" to buy
some hard liquer. Most of the early hours
of the day was spent in town before we headed
back to catch the first concerts. |
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| Once the concerts had started
people were in and out of camp all day and
night. I even managed to meet up with Zoid,
not even knowing he would be at the festival,
after a round of sms to locate eachother at
the festival area. The entire evening was
spent going to concerts, and a cold beer at
the beer tent (yeah, they don't sell real
beer at the concert area...wankers) |
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| Life in camp was most brilliant.
I even managed to stay in camp at several
occasions instead of going to concerts. We
were just too busy drinking slushdrinks of
suspicious colorings and goofing around. Thomas
(Zensor-drummer) had his very own tattoo services
with a markerpen (permanent). Very stylish,
I ensure you. |
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| Everyone was very happy about
the weather, and we took our time to work
on our tans. More shopping trips to the city
of Arvika was of course on the list as well.
The rest of the time we did...nothing really..except
going to concerts of course, and eating. |
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| The food at Arvika was nowhere
near the quality we're used to from Roskilde,
but I heard word that the "Moose-pita"
was the absolute winner of all the dishes
you could get. I never got around to try it
myself as I stuck with my fried noodles with
chicken and prawns most of the time.(The food
was a bit expensive too...) |
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| The people in the camp mostly
came from Oslo, but there were also people
from Bergen who lived there. |
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| Among the people living in
OSF Camp was also several of the members of
Zensor, who was playing at the festival (brilliant
concert), and the "Zensor-crew". |
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| When I arrived at Arvika there
weren't many people in the camp that I knew,
or had even ever met before, but after a couple
of days I managed to get almost everyone's
names. And after the festival we kinda ended
up going out every Wednesday. All because
of one evening with sushi orchestrated by
Leuat (Nicolaas). |
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| In the end of the festival
we were all pretty sunburned and tired of
the sun, so a make-shift sunscreen of tarpaulin
that would spare our tender skin was put up. |
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| On Saturday when the heat was
getting too much (and most of us really needed
a shower) we went into Arvika city and had
a lovely bath in the lake before we went shopping
and headed back to camp for one last night
of partying and concerts. |
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| On Saturday people started
leaving the area quite early, and the place
looked like such a pigsty. It's the worst
I've ever seen and I was very pleased with
one last bath in the lake, some shopping and
then to just get on that train back to Oslo. |
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