Greetings everyone!
As you might know I've been on a weekend holiday in Belgium, or at Graspop one might say. I know some of you weren't there and I bet some of you are a bit curious about how it was. Therefore I thought that it would be a good idea write a journal. Since I can only describe my own experience, this will be my personal journal of how I experienced the time of my life throughout 24th to the 29th of June. I will also post some pics in between and if you're interested in a whole package of the pics, you can download it here. I hope all you curious folks enjoy the read even though I'm really bad when it comes to explaining things, especially telling stories.
(PS: This is a rewrite because I accidentally deleted the journal which was almost finished. There might be some spelling mistakes and things I want to rewrite afterwards because didn't feel that I got to express myself properly. Finally, the reason for why I've put up seperate pages with the pics is because I know that some of you don't have the high bandwith and therefore it's easier to load some pics instead of all of them at once).
24th of June, 07:30 -> 25th of June, 05:30:
The morning breeze from the Oslo fjord is omnipresent in the city's morning rush. My neighbourhood is still a bit quiet, and I'm on my way the bus terminal from which I'll take the bus to Antwerp. Explaining everything in small details are boring, so I just want to say that the bus ride was pretty dull. Imagine sitting in a bus for 21 1/2 hours, without being able to sit comfortably because the you don't have room for your legs and that people place their necked feet everywhere (even on the top of my head
).
Anyways, when I finally arrive and go outside, I meet Maren (snow2falls) for the first time, suddenly Pieter (Mariner) shows up and we have a groupie (hug like, you perverts). We go to the car which is parked in Antwerp's 'diamond street' (which logically enough contains just diamond shops) and then ride off to Lisan's (althea) place.
25th of June, 07:00 -> 26th of June, bed time:
When we arrive I get to meet Lisan, right after also get to meet Jussi (Crack Hitler) and Sophia (somnium_in_tenebris). We all have a nice (but quiet) breakfest together before we pack our stuff to the car and drive off to Graspop. The breakfest was by the way a life saver. I hadn't eaten anything for 23 hours because I forgot me bag (with the money inside) in the bus when I could get a proper meal. Anyways, so we drove off to Graspop. There was lot of baggage which Maren, Sophia and I was stuck in the back with. Euch...
(I know that the pic doesn't really illustrate how much it was).
Dries (marginale) and some other from the forum was actually waiting for us (or everyone from the forum), so that we could have a forum camp instead of being spread. For your knowledge, we arrived quite late at the festival than we actually were supposed to. Poor Dries had actually been waiting for us for about 6-7 hours (if I've calculated correctly), and I reckon that was quite nice of him to do. Before we got to the festival we told him that he could just go inside with Caroline (DragonLady) and try to reserve some place for us (even though that wasn't actually meant to be possible).
So, after parking the car about 1km (or am I exagerating?) from the camp entrance and carrying all our baggage, we met Dries, Ralph and Charlotte. Dries, whom I was actually going to sleep in the same tent with and the one who bought me my ticket, was already pissed (true metal like), or it seemed like that at least. He managed to forget (or maybe someone stole?) a vital part of the tent, so now I lost my place to sleep. Fortunately Jussi had a three-man tent, in which he was supposed to sleep alone. The kind man offered me a spare place in his tent (just to mention: so did Dries in his friend's tent) and I got a place to sleep again. Also, I was about to pay Dries for the ticket (90 euros), but I only had a hundred. For you who know Dries the way that I do, it might not surprise you that he had used all his money on beer (or that's what I assume at least) and didn't have the 10 euros. (It's not meant to be mocking, I'm just trying to say how a great festival god he is, honestly!).
Anyways, we put our tents up and relaxed at the camping site. Jussi and I went off to the festival area to get some food and check out the place. After entering we got a booklet of the program and a description of all the bands. Inside there was an advertiser from MFN of the Anathema DVD "Were you there?". Yes, there was a pic of the front cover and I'm sorry for not taking a pic (if there are still people who hasn't seen it).
The food was okay, and the drinks were really expensive (for me at least, because I only drank water). We walked around a bit, and then I got back to the camping site because I wanted a little break before the Anathema gig. On the way I met Danny and had a little chat with him. He seemed to be in a good mood, especially when I showed him the advertiser in the booklet.
At the camping site everyone were ready to go to the festival area, and because I didn't want to be all alone at the camping site I went back with them despite the pain in my feet.
Tent Pics (!) - Pictures - #1
So back at the festival site again. I took some pics (look beneath) and we just walked around and had an okay time before the Anthema gig started. We also saw the most popular (?) air guitar band in Belgium, Air on Maiden, which preformed quite good IMHO (Dries disagrees and therefore he took all their beer from the stage and drank it himself).
Dries (! last pic) - Pictures - #2
Now for the Anathema gig. This was actually the only band I REALLY wanted to see on the festival, the others were more like bonuses, except for MDB, which I'll write about later. The gig itself was actually quite good, technically and the setlist was good aswell. Pieter (toolsofthetrade) was actually recording the whole gig on stage. Despite the great setup and all it was really shite for me. I say this because there were two guys who wanted to make a moshpit. Don't get me wrong, moshpits might be fun and all, but two guys only and on an Anathema gig. They ruined the whole experience for me, and I felt dissapointed. While most of the people went to the beer tent, some others (I don't really know who) and I went to bed.
Graspop Gig Pics (!) - Pictures - #3
Anathema Graspop Setlist:
26th of June, 10:00 -> 27th of June, bed time:
Woke up with the sun shining in my face and Jussi lying beside me, partly drunk, with a pair of teddy bear boxershorts (true metal aswell). Too bad I didn't take a pic, but I guess I wasn't in the mood after what happened the day before. Got outside and bought meself a 'breakfest box' which I enjoyed quite well on the top of Pieter's tent. This day was actually going very slow. I was listening to some music in Jussi's tent and so on. Pieter, Lisan, Cerulean (and his GF, didn't get her name, sorry ) decided to make some food, pasta to be more correct. So we sat together in a circle chatting and having a nice time. I even took some pics of the good food. *nam nam*
These might make you hungry (!) - Pictures - #4
Then, what seems to be the best news later on, Pieter comes up with an idea. Lisan and he was thinking of going to Breda, Netherlands. It's a free festival where Anathema was going to play before they got back to UK (no?). Pieter asked me if I wanted to come aswell, and after checking if it was okay with them that I came a long, I followed on. We packed our stuff and put it in the car.
I know that this may seem stupid, 'leaving' the festival after one day when I've come all the way from Norway.I reckon my reasons were perfectly clear, with the dissapointment of the Anathema gig and all.
When we were finished, we went back to the festival area to check out what was going on. Pieter wanted to see Soulfly and Slipknot, and I wanted to see My Dying Bride. It was all going quite good, despite the fact that I didn't like Soulfly at all. Peiter had a good time though, you can have a better look at this vid. After Soulfly, some of us went to see the MDB gig and had a good time. I can't get hold of the setlist, but they played some good songs, even though I only knew a few of them properly. Right after it was Slipknot's turn on the main stage, and didn't like them at all (as I presumed). Sophia and I got back to the camping site where we just waited with Cerulean, his GF and a mate of theirs for the one's watching Slipknot to come back.
If I remember correctly Pieter, Lisan, Irene (Bastet), Maren and Jussi came back after the Slipknot gig. Pieter and Jussi was in the middle of the crowd, and according to them it was quite dusty (yes, more than at the camping site) in there. Jussi took of his shoes and socks and found out that he got a tan, unfortunately it was a temporary one (of dust).
Beware the feet(!) - Pictures - #5
So when everyone got around we had a good chat, and we finally left for Lisan's palace to get some sleep.
27th of June, wake up time -> 28th of June, bed time:
For some reason I couldn't sleep properly that night, so I was the first one to wake up (or I think at least). I wasn't metal enough to wake everyone else up, so I just spent some time walking around in Lisan's beatiful garden while listening to some music.
This is actually the most beatiful and garden I've ever seen. I couldn't get hold of some pics, but I reckon someone else has. She had all kinds of things in it, like curry, onions, potatos, salad and a really nice shelter (it seemed quite 'antique') which was used as a kind of bird house. I took some pics of the birdies, but they're not that good and therefore I won't put them up right now.
So eventually people woke up and we ate breakfest together, as when I first arrived. We took our time and then got back to Graspop to meet the others. There wasn't really much to do around so we met up with Pieter (toolsofthetrade), Jussi, Bastet, Ralph and Charlotte (if I'm remembering correctly). Pieter (Mariner) and I decided to go to the metal market before we went off to Breda, the free festival in Netherland in which Anathema were supposed to have a final gig. There I bought meself a few records and suddenly we had to go.
Hotness alert (! *roar*) - Pictures - #6
We all went off with the rest of the stuff that we had left behind on the camping site in case we needed it. Because the car was parked several kilometers from the camping site, Lisan and Pieter went to get it while we waited with all the stuff.
After they finally came with the car and discussed the way to Breda with Irene (which drove Pieter (tools), Maren and Jussi), we drove off. About one hour ride (or thats what I was told), we found ourselves in the center of the town of Breda and went immediately to the stage (which was in the middle park). Pieter (Mariner) and I ran off just to be sure we didn't miss anything and fortunately no one from the forum did (I hope).
The gig itself made my whole weekend and I can HONESTLY say that I had the TIME OF MY LIFE! (Trying to describe it with my vocabulary will only make it seem less worthy than it was). After the gig Anathema took their time to meet everyone from the forum (and even some other fans?) behind the stage (wouldn't call it backstage). That's when the biggest forum mating yet occured. Unfortunately I only have one pic which is really shite (but funny). I'm sure other people (like Bastet and someone else) have more and can post them later.
There I got to meet quite many from the forum (that I hadn't seen on Graspop already), like Siderea, LostLenore (no?) and some other people that I can't remember (im sorry about this, maybe someone else can fill who else was there?). People were basically walking around and meeting everyone else. As many has already told us on the forum, I think that everyone were really enjoying themselves and I can't really see why they wouldn't.
Breda Gig Pics (!) - Pictures - #7
After the lads left us we (the fans) agreed to meet back in Antwerp to have a drink together. So we met up at friend of Lisan's, named Stan. Really nice guy, and he also had a cute dog named Binja (correct?) who could do some cool tricks)). A few drinks later and some guitar playing I was getting physically tired. We finally went back to Lisan's to get a good night sleep before a last day with truly great mates.
Anathema Breda Setlist:
28th of June, 24:00 -> 29th of June, 21:30:
I'm off back to Oslo, Norway with the bus for 21 1/2 hours again. With a small calculation, that makes me sitting in a bus of a total 43 hours. I finally arrive in Oslo about 21:30 and go home as fast as I can.
Last Words:
I don't know how the individual reader (if anyone has bothered to read through it all) got my story. From my point of view, it was really great and well worth the trip, despite the long ride and all. I got to meet people from the forum and make new friends (even though I might have chatted with them online).
Even though I'm only 16 years old and eat a lot of cheese I'm sure that this experience has 'scarred' me for life. Meaning I will never forget it.
For the ones who weren't there; you should next time, without hesitation, even though it might not be as good as this one. *grabs some wood*
So long for now, and thanks for all the great time we had together!
by Rafael
As you might know I've been on a weekend holiday in Belgium, or at Graspop one might say. I know some of you weren't there and I bet some of you are a bit curious about how it was. Therefore I thought that it would be a good idea write a journal. Since I can only describe my own experience, this will be my personal journal of how I experienced the time of my life throughout 24th to the 29th of June. I will also post some pics in between and if you're interested in a whole package of the pics, you can download it here. I hope all you curious folks enjoy the read even though I'm really bad when it comes to explaining things, especially telling stories.
(PS: This is a rewrite because I accidentally deleted the journal which was almost finished. There might be some spelling mistakes and things I want to rewrite afterwards because didn't feel that I got to express myself properly. Finally, the reason for why I've put up seperate pages with the pics is because I know that some of you don't have the high bandwith and therefore it's easier to load some pics instead of all of them at once).
24th of June, 07:30 -> 25th of June, 05:30:
The morning breeze from the Oslo fjord is omnipresent in the city's morning rush. My neighbourhood is still a bit quiet, and I'm on my way the bus terminal from which I'll take the bus to Antwerp. Explaining everything in small details are boring, so I just want to say that the bus ride was pretty dull. Imagine sitting in a bus for 21 1/2 hours, without being able to sit comfortably because the you don't have room for your legs and that people place their necked feet everywhere (even on the top of my head
). Anyways, when I finally arrive and go outside, I meet Maren (snow2falls) for the first time, suddenly Pieter (Mariner) shows up and we have a groupie (hug like, you perverts
). We go to the car which is parked in Antwerp's 'diamond street' (which logically enough contains just diamond shops) and then ride off to Lisan's (althea) place.25th of June, 07:00 -> 26th of June, bed time:
When we arrive I get to meet Lisan, right after also get to meet Jussi (Crack Hitler) and Sophia (somnium_in_tenebris). We all have a nice (but quiet) breakfest together before we pack our stuff to the car and drive off to Graspop. The breakfest was by the way a life saver. I hadn't eaten anything for 23 hours because I forgot me bag (with the money inside) in the bus when I could get a proper meal. Anyways, so we drove off to Graspop. There was lot of baggage which Maren, Sophia and I was stuck in the back with. Euch...
(I know that the pic doesn't really illustrate how much it was).
Dries (marginale) and some other from the forum was actually waiting for us (or everyone from the forum), so that we could have a forum camp instead of being spread. For your knowledge, we arrived quite late at the festival than we actually were supposed to. Poor Dries had actually been waiting for us for about 6-7 hours (if I've calculated correctly), and I reckon that was quite nice of him to do. Before we got to the festival we told him that he could just go inside with Caroline (DragonLady) and try to reserve some place for us (even though that wasn't actually meant to be possible).
So, after parking the car about 1km (or am I exagerating?) from the camp entrance and carrying all our baggage, we met Dries, Ralph and Charlotte. Dries, whom I was actually going to sleep in the same tent with and the one who bought me my ticket, was already pissed (true metal like), or it seemed like that at least. He managed to forget (or maybe someone stole?) a vital part of the tent, so now I lost my place to sleep. Fortunately Jussi had a three-man tent, in which he was supposed to sleep alone. The kind man offered me a spare place in his tent (just to mention: so did Dries in his friend's tent) and I got a place to sleep again. Also, I was about to pay Dries for the ticket (90 euros), but I only had a hundred. For you who know Dries the way that I do, it might not surprise you that he had used all his money on beer (or that's what I assume at least) and didn't have the 10 euros. (It's not meant to be mocking, I'm just trying to say how a great festival god he is, honestly!).
Anyways, we put our tents up and relaxed at the camping site. Jussi and I went off to the festival area to get some food and check out the place. After entering we got a booklet of the program and a description of all the bands. Inside there was an advertiser from MFN of the Anathema DVD "Were you there?". Yes, there was a pic of the front cover and I'm sorry for not taking a pic (if there are still people who hasn't seen it).
The food was okay, and the drinks were really expensive (for me at least, because I only drank water). We walked around a bit, and then I got back to the camping site because I wanted a little break before the Anathema gig. On the way I met Danny and had a little chat with him. He seemed to be in a good mood, especially when I showed him the advertiser in the booklet.
At the camping site everyone were ready to go to the festival area, and because I didn't want to be all alone at the camping site I went back with them despite the pain in my feet.
Tent Pics (!) - Pictures - #1
So back at the festival site again. I took some pics (look beneath) and we just walked around and had an okay time before the Anthema gig started. We also saw the most popular (?) air guitar band in Belgium, Air on Maiden, which preformed quite good IMHO (Dries disagrees and therefore he took all their beer from the stage and drank it himself).
Dries (! last pic) - Pictures - #2
Now for the Anathema gig. This was actually the only band I REALLY wanted to see on the festival, the others were more like bonuses, except for MDB, which I'll write about later. The gig itself was actually quite good, technically and the setlist was good aswell. Pieter (toolsofthetrade) was actually recording the whole gig on stage. Despite the great setup and all it was really shite for me. I say this because there were two guys who wanted to make a moshpit. Don't get me wrong, moshpits might be fun and all, but two guys only and on an Anathema gig. They ruined the whole experience for me, and I felt dissapointed. While most of the people went to the beer tent, some others (I don't really know who) and I went to bed.
Graspop Gig Pics (!) - Pictures - #3
Anathema Graspop Setlist:
- Shroud of False
- Fragile Dreams
- Balance
- Closer
- Release
- One Last Goodbye
- Empty
- A Natural Disaster
- Judgement
- Panic
- Flying
- A Dying Wish
- Pink Floyd cover - Comfortably Numb
26th of June, 10:00 -> 27th of June, bed time:
Woke up with the sun shining in my face and Jussi lying beside me, partly drunk, with a pair of teddy bear boxershorts (true metal aswell). Too bad I didn't take a pic, but I guess I wasn't in the mood after what happened the day before. Got outside and bought meself a 'breakfest box' which I enjoyed quite well on the top of Pieter's tent. This day was actually going very slow. I was listening to some music in Jussi's tent and so on. Pieter, Lisan, Cerulean (and his GF, didn't get her name, sorry
) decided to make some food, pasta to be more correct. So we sat together in a circle chatting and having a nice time. I even took some pics of the good food. *nam nam*These might make you hungry (!) - Pictures - #4
Then, what seems to be the best news later on, Pieter comes up with an idea. Lisan and he was thinking of going to Breda, Netherlands. It's a free festival where Anathema was going to play before they got back to UK (no?). Pieter asked me if I wanted to come aswell, and after checking if it was okay with them that I came a long, I followed on. We packed our stuff and put it in the car.
I know that this may seem stupid, 'leaving' the festival after one day when I've come all the way from Norway.I reckon my reasons were perfectly clear, with the dissapointment of the Anathema gig and all.
When we were finished, we went back to the festival area to check out what was going on. Pieter wanted to see Soulfly and Slipknot, and I wanted to see My Dying Bride. It was all going quite good, despite the fact that I didn't like Soulfly at all. Peiter had a good time though, you can have a better look at this vid. After Soulfly, some of us went to see the MDB gig and had a good time. I can't get hold of the setlist, but they played some good songs, even though I only knew a few of them properly. Right after it was Slipknot's turn on the main stage, and didn't like them at all (as I presumed). Sophia and I got back to the camping site where we just waited with Cerulean, his GF and a mate of theirs for the one's watching Slipknot to come back.
If I remember correctly Pieter, Lisan, Irene (Bastet), Maren and Jussi came back after the Slipknot gig. Pieter and Jussi was in the middle of the crowd, and according to them it was quite dusty (yes, more than at the camping site) in there. Jussi took of his shoes and socks and found out that he got a tan, unfortunately it was a temporary one (of dust).
Beware the feet(!) - Pictures - #5
So when everyone got around we had a good chat, and we finally left for Lisan's palace to get some sleep.
27th of June, wake up time -> 28th of June, bed time:
For some reason I couldn't sleep properly that night, so I was the first one to wake up (or I think at least). I wasn't metal enough to wake everyone else up, so I just spent some time walking around in Lisan's beatiful garden while listening to some music.
This is actually the most beatiful and garden I've ever seen. I couldn't get hold of some pics, but I reckon someone else has. She had all kinds of things in it, like curry, onions, potatos, salad and a really nice shelter (it seemed quite 'antique') which was used as a kind of bird house. I took some pics of the birdies, but they're not that good and therefore I won't put them up right now.
So eventually people woke up and we ate breakfest together, as when I first arrived. We took our time and then got back to Graspop to meet the others. There wasn't really much to do around so we met up with Pieter (toolsofthetrade), Jussi, Bastet, Ralph and Charlotte (if I'm remembering correctly). Pieter (Mariner) and I decided to go to the metal market before we went off to Breda, the free festival in Netherland in which Anathema were supposed to have a final gig. There I bought meself a few records and suddenly we had to go.
Hotness alert (! *roar*) - Pictures - #6
We all went off with the rest of the stuff that we had left behind on the camping site in case we needed it. Because the car was parked several kilometers from the camping site, Lisan and Pieter went to get it while we waited with all the stuff.
After they finally came with the car and discussed the way to Breda with Irene (which drove Pieter (tools), Maren and Jussi), we drove off. About one hour ride (or thats what I was told), we found ourselves in the center of the town of Breda and went immediately to the stage (which was in the middle park). Pieter (Mariner) and I ran off just to be sure we didn't miss anything and fortunately no one from the forum did (I hope).
The gig itself made my whole weekend and I can HONESTLY say that I had the TIME OF MY LIFE! (Trying to describe it with my vocabulary will only make it seem less worthy than it was). After the gig Anathema took their time to meet everyone from the forum (and even some other fans?) behind the stage (wouldn't call it backstage). That's when the biggest forum mating yet occured. Unfortunately I only have one pic which is really shite (but funny). I'm sure other people (like Bastet and someone else) have more and can post them later.
There I got to meet quite many from the forum (that I hadn't seen on Graspop already), like Siderea, LostLenore (no?) and some other people that I can't remember (im sorry about this, maybe someone else can fill who else was there?). People were basically walking around and meeting everyone else. As many has already told us on the forum, I think that everyone were really enjoying themselves and I can't really see why they wouldn't.
Breda Gig Pics (!) - Pictures - #7
After the lads left us we (the fans) agreed to meet back in Antwerp to have a drink together. So we met up at friend of Lisan's, named Stan. Really nice guy, and he also had a cute dog named Binja (correct?) who could do some cool tricks
)). A few drinks later and some guitar playing I was getting physically tired. We finally went back to Lisan's to get a good night sleep before a last day with truly great mates.Anathema Breda Setlist:
- Shroud of False
- Fragile
- Balance
- Closer
- dutch footie bollox (?)
- Pressure
- Release
- Forgotten Hopes
- Daed (?)
- One Last Goodbye
- Empty
- A Natural Disaster
- Judgement
- Panic
- Temporary Peace
- Flying
- Pink Floyd cover - Comfortably Numb
28th of June, 24:00 -> 29th of June, 21:30:
I'm off back to Oslo, Norway with the bus for 21 1/2 hours again. With a small calculation, that makes me sitting in a bus of a total 43 hours. I finally arrive in Oslo about 21:30 and go home as fast as I can.
Last Words:
I don't know how the individual reader (if anyone has bothered to read through it all) got my story. From my point of view, it was really great and well worth the trip, despite the long ride and all. I got to meet people from the forum and make new friends (even though I might have chatted with them online).
Even though I'm only 16 years old and eat a lot of cheese I'm sure that this experience has 'scarred' me for life. Meaning I will never forget it.
For the ones who weren't there; you should next time, without hesitation, even though it might not be as good as this one. *grabs some wood*
So long for now, and thanks for all the great time we had together!
by Rafael
