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Arvikafestivalen Jul 10-12 2003
Festivals are an as integral part of summer as strawberries, ice cream and lazy summer wasting - if not more so. Arvikafestivalen, this year in its twelfth edition, has come to be renowned for many things among festivals in Sweden. Its "quirky" visitors, i.e. many rivet heads, punk rockers, goth kids and Pandas, its moose kebab and line-ups unaffected by MTV rotation. Growing larger every year and becoming accustomed to attracting record-breaking audiences the festival still stands out as a sanctuary of non-conformity and a place to find new seeds of creativity.
For the second year in a row (if you don't count the ten year anniversary three years ago), Arvikafestivalen stretched over three full days of music, dancing, drinking and camping in the Swedish woods. I got there late Tuesday night, and while some might say I was there damn early (including I) there had already gathered a fair number of people on the upper half of the camping ground and the camping parties seemed to be well under way. Weather is always a great concern when heading for festivals, and Arvikafestivalen is famous for its mud bath camping from years such as '98 and '00. The weather was almost perfect; some showers earlier in the day kept the dust on the ground while lowering the temperature a notch or two.
Wednesday started beautifully, burning sun high over the camping and clear skies. One could hardly wish for better weather on the one day dedicated to just kicking back at the tent, drinking beer and socializing with neighbours as there were no bands until Thursday. It all felt very promising.
Thursday started off with Swedish Tyskarna Från Lund, the musical side project of Varanteatern who balances somewhere in the twilight of pure comedy on one hand and an equal mix of the latter with praise to electronic pioneers Kraftwerk. Despite technical problems at the Apollo stage, which hindered them from performing fully, their gig made for a nice festival kick-off. Following Tyskarna were shows from the Radio Department, the Sounds, Dub Sweden and Ladytron, who at the last minute replaced Goldfrapp who were unable to perform "due to circumstances beyond the control of Arvikafestivalen".
As Thursday's final headliner and one of Arvikafestivalen's most prestigious bookings ever, Björk put on a massive show with fireworks, pyrotechnics and a sixteen-piece orchestra. While some might argue that her performance was not outstanding, nevertheless it was great fun to watch the fireworks against the dusk of the Swedish summer night.
One thing that struck me while watching Björk (and later Chicks On Speed) was that more and more bands are using video projection these days. Well, the bigger names at least, who can afford it. Video projection has its points, it provides the whole audience with a visual experience, even those trapped in the middle with a two meter tall basketball player in front of them, or those far in the back whose main impression of the band are a few blurry dots fidgeting about the stage. But it will never replace (but perhaps diminish) stage presence. It seemed to me, that with some bands, video projection filled no other purpose than merely show casing that the artist could afford to feature it. I'd like to see a better reason than that, otherwise it's just insult added to injury when watching an artist uncommitted to the audience. A few to many bands seemed to have thought of using video projection before deciding what to do with it, instead of coming up with an idea for what to do with it and then incorporating it into the rest of the show. Anyway,
then off to Apollo to watch Chicks On Speed, a change of pace from watching Björk and a "pick me up" for those who wanted to go on partying into the night. Many were not in a partying mood though, as the sad message that DAF had cancelled due to injury spread across the festival. No replacement could be found at such short notice and while re-arranging the schedule filled the gap at the main stage, the gap in the artist line-up was just the same.
Other sad messages, at least for those arriving late, was that the camping had been closed for visitors arriving with tents. Despite increasing the camping size by five per cent the fire department still decided that it was too packed and that the fire hazard would become too big should they have allowed more tents. So visitors arriving late with tents had to turn around and walk back to, well, actually I don't know where they were referred to, but I guess they were directed to the trailer camping.
Making a few other observations concerning the increasing number of visitors each year, parts of the festival is out growing itself. The camping is becoming very crowded, some of the smaller stages are at times heavily overcrowded, though scheduling stages is a very hard task and the choice of stage has to be weighted against what kind of slot a band would otherwise be given. Over hearing is another increasing problem, mostly at Apollo where far too often the concerts were disrupted by whatever was playing at Vintergatan simultaneously. But more visitors means more money to book bigger names as well as for smaller acts which otherwise wouldn't be financially viable to book.
Friday started off good, some clouds over the camping provided some relief from the burning sun and allowed me to sleep in till noon at least. The afternoon was packed with acts to see. We headed off to see Alice in Videoland who had just released their much praised debut single "Dance with me". Lyran was packed with people when we arrived, and for a good reason. Alice In Videoland did a very energetic gig, much like that of Paris last year at the same stage. Paris, incidentally, went on stage at Andromeda half an hour into Alice set. Since Alice were a tad short of material I went and watched them for a few minutes but weren't nearly as impressed as I was last year. I've seen them twice since then and sadly not a lot seems to have happened since then. Worthwhile if one hasn't seen them before but Slagsmålsklubben was entering Lyran and felt a lot more interesting. And it was. Generally speaking, Arvika's demo stage is a very interesting place to hang around. They have over the years developed a special sense for picking up new and exciting acts and this year was no exception. Other bands that performed at Lyran this year was TPIKSA, Quit Your Dayjob, Gothminister and Monotypes. After Slagsmålsklubben it was time for Statemachine, back with a new album they entered Andromeda with a set list that encompassed a lot of the new songs but also some of the old classics.
Following the re-arrangements due to DAF's cancellation, Finnish HIM got to play at Vintergatan and no fan nor HIM seemed to mind doing so. Then there was Ministry, and band that returned with a vicious new album, "Animositisomina", earlier this spring, almost at par with "Psalm 69". I think they pleasantly surprised many that evening. Raw aggression, beating away with hits like "Bad Blood", "New World Order" and "So What" they kept the motion going through out the show and in my own opinion, did one of the better performance at Vintergatan this year. Following Ministry, Belgian Front 242 played at Apollo. Opinions differ as to whether they were great or awful, performing old classics such as "Body To Body" and "Headhunter" or mangling the same with "up-to-date" versions. In either case, I doubt anyone was expecting to see Front 242 the legends, after their gig at Tinitus last year.
Saturday and final day of the festival was another hot, humid day. Looking at the program, my day started off with Mikael Wiehe, a nice breather from everything electronic. Then kicking back at the tent in anticipation of acts such as Melody Club who took home some of the more prestigious awards at SAMA, Moonspell, Stereo Total, Project Pitchfork and Mesh. I must admit I was bored with Stereo Total early into their set, their gig felt a year old and had they been booked last year perhaps things had not felt so tired. Instead I wandered around the festival area and by chance stopped at Jeans Team from Germany playing at Andromeda. Not familiar with the band since previously I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by this bouncier, livelier German version of Plexus. They finished just in time for Project Pitchfork, who in the light of DAF's cancellation were among the electronic highlights of the festival.
Somewhat surprisingly, not in the least to themselves, UK's Mesh closed Vintergatan with a show that had the, somewhat sparse, crowd moving from beginning to end.
All in all, Arvikafestivalen '03 was a fun experience though hardly one to stand out among festivals. I'm still curious why there were no headliners starting past midnight. Or when Impetus will get to be open all night again. The drug problem has decreased since Arvika made headlines regarding drug busts in 2000. From what I gather, there were very few incidents at all during the festival, for a festival at least. A few people who'd had too much to drink, a few thefts, some minor possession charges but nothing out of the ordinary. I think some re-design is needed if Arvikafestivalen is going to keep up the growth of visitors. Not in the least when it comes to the camping. But I have no worries, I've never been disappointed after visiting the festival, and I doubt I'll ever be.
Some special thanks: The friendly girl at the entrance who let me in without a pass when I arrived after the check in had closed, Lina in the cafeteria for not charging me for the water, the boys who taught me the lyrics to "I'm a cucumber", Stefan for provision of entertainment and teaching us how to handle the everyday occupational hazards of camping, the whole of Arvikafestivalen for their commitment at dedication to put together the festival each year, and last but not least, the person who stole all my beer Friday night - bastard.
/Fredric Düring
All photos taken by Angelika Artale. ©Moving Hands.
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Paola
The Sounds
Ladytron
Björk
Alice In Videoland
Soulfly
Stereo Total
Project Pitchfork
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