Preview
The modem scene is less friendly than the mail one.
We all have been lamers before being VIS.
Money is killing the Scene.
Like everything on Earth, even the Scene has its own common places and
sentences, that, just because they have been written many times, are often
considered by the mass as the holy truth. One of these phrases - "it is
possible to arrange a good party in Germany" - has been confessed and
confirmed, during the past Easter.
We're about to tell you why and how.
SYMPOSIUM 1996, 5th - 8th April, Hamburg, Germany.
Organized by Lego, Phantasm, Polka Bros, Oxyron, Absence and Avena
The event was rather well advertised. Texts were spread around bulletin
board systems on a worldwide basis and a colourful and nice home page on
Internet, were just the most useful ways, how the Scene could get news
about Symposium 1996. We, here at ROM, also tried to get some dedicated
news by contacting Decca of Lego via email, but, due to some unknown
reasons, we never received any answer.
The ROM Team was amongst the first visitors who entered the party place
itself; we immediately identified the organizers, because of their
colourful pink shirts. Curious about the identity of our hosts, ROM put
the question directly to organiser Rawstyle, who kindly took his time to
explain everything;
"Gandalf of Phantasm is the one who put everything together,
the prizes, the location and most of the things that need to be organised.
When it comes to me, I have been taking care of updating the web pages,
coding the invitation, compiling texts for distribution, and other general
organizing. Sire and Herr Sol of Lego are the ones who arranged all the
video and sound, Steeler of Phantasm provided great entertainment, Crash
of Polka Brothers, Decca of Lego and Chaos came up with most of the ideas
on how to organize this party in a different way than usual, whilst Take
Off of Phantasm made all the video pre-recordings and printed the road
signs"
All in all, ROM knows that the organising hands and helpers were more than
27.
Visitors were around 700, with a good 40% of them, being foreigners coming
from Sweden, England, Spain, Hungary, Italy, France, Austria, Netherlands
and Denmark. As stated in the invitation text, the expected crowd should
have been at least double this amount, but maybe the organizers did not
take in consideration "The Gathering factor".
"We knew that TG could be a lure to avoid our party, especially for the
ones coming from northern Europe. But we took that in account and didn't
really want to compete against TG, but just be a nice alternative",
declares Rawstyle.
The most appreciated features of the Symposium were without any doubts the
laser show, "that burned down your head" - affirmed the organizers - and a
very nice live music concert from Noisedrift. The Internet Cafe, directed
by Rawstyle himself, turned out to be a very crowded attraction. Most of
the party attendants, when asked some weeks after the event, declared to be
satisfied with most of the party offerings. Some might have probably
already heard about the promised features that worked (most of the things)
and the side-deficiencies (lack of showers and the never working bus
shuttle), but, most of all, one must have surely noticed the constant
comparison between Symposium and The Party 5 - literally everyone that
found his way to Germany last Easter, came up with such comments - And it's
about these comparisons that we would like to focus our attention on.
One of the main differences might seem futile and banal at first sight;
Symposium 1996 was a FUNNY event, while The Party 5 wasn't. It was funny
because of the overall spirit one could feel inside the party - just what
most visitors were looking for. Infant, who came all the way from the
heart of Holland, confirms our theories, and continues to add that it was
this particular air of happiness that made the Symposium, the best party he
ever attended to. Amongst the events that occurred during the three days,
we could underline the ones that helped to create the right atmosphere:
The organizers were rather friendly and well mannered. They helped
people to carry their bags and equipment and let everyone sleep wherever
(almost) it was possible.
The Spanish scener (a real myth), who came to Germany in an old beige
Fiesta, started to sell CD32 pads and other useful things, to collect
enough money to visit the Scenest 1996 in Hungary.
The so-called Sea Competition, where some smart competitors jumped into
the cold and frosty water with all their cloths on, just to win some
t-shirts and porno CDs.
The multi-platform events, making a real "global party" and not just a
PC/Amiga standard festival.
Even if ROM believes that the Scene needs huge and professional parties
to attract the attention of the important medias, and open it's gates to
the outside world, we can't avoid to underline how professionality has
nothing to do with aseptic and impolite behaviour. The Party 5 has to be
considered as a total f ailure, not because, as stated in most of the
magazines around, of the too professional spirit, but, on the contrary,
because of the total lack of ability of the organizers to prepare an event
that could suit with the tastes of the visitors - in this case, the SCENERS
themselves.
The Symposium organizers deserve our best compliments not for being
benefactors or particularly devoted to the Scene (they could be, but that's
not the point), but because they have shown great skills, in achieving to
sell what their customers wanted. The scene wanted to enjoy their Easter
holidays, to have back the famous "old spirit", and Lego, Phantasm, Polka
Bros, Oxyron, Absence and Avena have succeeded in building three enjoyable
days.
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This is only the first half of the text; what follows is an extensive
review of the competitions, including a wide discussion on the quality of
today's music competitions, because the Sym96 module competition was said
to be faked by the winner and contained too much techno.
However I have left this out since it's nothing
which you can't find on any other party. The report ends with this paragraph:
In fact, the SYMPOSIUM 97 will be held at the
VERANSTALTUNGSZENTRUM BURG SEEVETAL, situated very close to Hamburg, in the
northern parts of Germany. The party will last from the 28th until the
31st of MARCH 1997. ROM surely knows where to spend next year's Easter
holidays!