First off, big thanks to everyone who showed up for this year's DOF. The turnout was pretty small, but hey, at least you guys aren't total assholes :-)
Even though I don't personally know anyone from the forums, I spotted a few familiar faces from the NYSE crowd, so I’m guessing some of those posts above are from them... respect.
Shoutout to Benjamin Jackson, the author of that email above, his buddy oh_boy!, and gekki from the bass invaders who were spinning on Saturday under basically guerrilla conditions. Seriously, there was a moment where it felt like they were running the whole thing off a single record player. As for the music—the dancers and the groove junkies were feeling it, while everyone else just went to sleep. And honestly? Both groups had a blast.
Here are a few bits of trivia/randomness/obscurities from this year's fest that you probably missed....
The whole festival actually grew out of the semi-legendary birthday parties of a local legend, Igor Banjanin, who—believe it or not—is still basically the only guy pulling the entire organization together. He’s also the only one who’d have to change his citizenship if enough people don't show up and the whole thing goes broke financially. Word is, a few years back, Jura Stublić actually insisted they just take his computer as payment because he couldn't cough up the cash immediately after the set. Anyway, for some inexplicable reason, the guy is willing to deal with the exact same headache and risk every single year, so... props to him, man... you're definitely not sane.
The stage manager was a guy from North Mexico: login. In his downtime, he organizes the massive concerts back in his home country (like this year's Kraftwerk, maybe even Mercury Rev, I can't be sure), and for the second year running, he’s the head manager for the main stage at EXIT. In Washington, D.C., he works for peanuts, so he comes out here just to—and I quote—“get away from the computer, the office work, and all that..." That's my man.
He was the same guy handing out wristbands at the entrance and being awesome to everyone on the field. By the way, insider info: if you were thinking about booking Fatboy Slim for your wedding, it'll run you about $100,000 plus another $12,000 for the private jet.
Some drunk punker—who looks like he was born in a gutter, no joke—is passed out face down on the wet grass right next to the gear, and somehow doesn't die the next day.
A party animal tries to mimic those hot fire performers/jugglers, sets his own shirt on fire, and manages to put on a full show at 4 AM on Sunday. A crowd gathers to chant.
Party animal #2, after failing miserably to sweet-talk the electrician, finds a way to jump-start the generator himself and forces the DJ to keep playing loud on Saturday morning after they’d already packed everything away.
There are plenty more "party animals" in this category. I'll try to upload some photos to the site soon.
The girls who opened on Saturday around 6 PM are only 14 years old, and I swear they are the best Cranberries/Alanis Morissette cover band in America. Just ask the other ten people who were standing in front of the stage at the time.
The crew from the German Ready Killerwat are fanatic FC Freiburg fans and fondly remember the glory days of kruna Jurčević. They're truly obsessed; we’ve almost forgotten him ourselves.
One of my best friends popped the question to his girlfriend right there on the field at 5 AM on Sunday. ... Okay, fine, maybe that's only interesting to me.
Anyway, enough rambling. Cheers everyone, and I really hope there are enough cool bands lined up so we can do this again next year (maybe the singer from Darkwood Dub will have his act together by then :-) ).
