Erstellt am: 8. 7. 2012 - 17:04 Uhr
Urban Art Forms (UAF): Musings from Day Three
My experience of a festival is almost always informed (to a large extent) by some of the first impressions I have. So, where on Day Two, I was "woken up" with this Sturm Warnung (the damaged stage, et. al.), on Day Three, my festival experience was informed by a rather disturbing incident early in the afternoon, as photographer Patrick Wally and I went in the direction of the main stage via the main entrance.
A little background information: as priviliged "press" people, we have access to any number of entrances to the Festivalgelände, and with our special passes have been able to carry through drinks, equipment, full unchecked bags, and secret government documents, all sans trouble.
That's normal if you are formally at an event to cover it.
The fastest and most efficient way to the main stage was, not surprisingly, the main entrance. Along with hordes of other festival-goers, we passed through the security gates, and encountered some trouble from an unexpected quarter, when the security woman checking us spotted that I was carrying a bottle of anti-sun lotion in my pocket.
"Yes," I agreed. "I am carrying sun cream."
It was, after all, one of the hottest festival days of the year. The sun was beating mercilessly down on us the entire afternoon, and even with strong anti-sun lotion on, I still managed to get quite burnt.
Patrick Wally, 2012
The security woman pointed at a pile of bottles of sun cream lying on the ground. We weren't, none of us, allowed to bring any sort of sun protection into the festival area with us. I would have to give up my anti-sun lotion.
The problem? I have always been extremely sensitive to sun. I am highly susceptible to sun stroke, and been so badly burnt (once, in Indonesia) that I was unable to wear a shirt for about a week.
* - Did I say bands? Sorry, I meant to say "guys standing in front of their laptops, playing a bunch of pre-recorded music."
Aside from the fact that skin cancer is a serious risk - for all of us - it's no fun for anyone to spend days or even weeks with peeling, sensitive red skin. When you buy a ticket to go to an event, there is no expectation that you will have to put your physical health at risk, just to see some bands*.
And check the photographs below. What's the main demographic of people coming to this festival? Thousands and thousands of scantily-clad, in many cases nearly naked, teenagers.
The next question is, why was this a problem? What were the festival organizers so afraid that FM4 journalists and half-naked 14-year olds alike were smuggling in, in anti-sun lotion bottles?
And if we were to smuggle something in, why wouldn't we just smuggle it through any number of unguarded open-wire fences spread across the Festivalgelände? Or, for God's sake, in our wallets and underpants?
It gets worse. Within a minute or two of Patrick and I reaching this impasse with the event security, they got very physically aggressive; I'm hesitant to use the word assault for it, but it's on the tip of my tongue.
They pushed us both and forcibly grabbed my sun cream, causing the lid to break off, and a small rip on my shorts. At that point, we simply left and went to another entrance, where there was no problem whatsoever.
Patrick Wally, 2012
We are the lucky ones. We didn't have to go in through the main entrance.
After I got over my moral indignation about having not been treated as a special VIP person (the horrors!), I found myself really angry about this bone-driven policy, for the reasons written above.
This story is not about the fact that security personnel sometimes behave badly at festivals. That's a given. But what kind of festival organizer tells their security people to implement that sort of nasty policy, on a hot day with temperatures rising well above 30°C?
That's where the responsibility lies.
The Festivalgelände, however, is absolutely lovely. I would definitely return to Graz's Schwarzlsee for another festival; the Music Academy Stage is small, cute, and located right at the water, which provides a fantastic atmosphere.
For a summer music festival, the location is perfect. The only thing I would like is if there was a little more, er, shade. The entire area is almost completely exposed. Next time I'll rock an old school sun umbrella.
* - I have no idea who it was, because the schedule was changed around. The dnb guys were in the slot that had been previously reserved for Pendulum.
The music on this last day of UAF was quite lively, and the crowd was really into it - starting early on with heavy dnb, complete with a ragga MC*.
After that, it became a very strong dubstep sound for a couple of sets*. I missed most of that, wandering around the festival area, bathing in the Schwarzlsee, and searching for trees to hide from the sun under.
* - Knife Party, Chase & Status DJ Set
Around 9pm, however, just as the sun was beginning its daily retreat to the other side of the earth, there was a sense of heavy anticipation in the air.
Thank goodness for Deichkind.
My first Deichkind concert was actually at UAF 2011, so for me it was nearly nostalgic to see them here again. After all of the laptop performers that were the majority of this year's line-up, there was something extremely refreshing about a band of bizarre hip hoppers in neon costumes, standing (or rappelling off the side of) what looked like giant silver Tetris blocks.
The show was so, so, so live. I wished it would never end. Unfortunately it lasted only one hour. But it was a high quality and jam-packed hour, and made me wish that there would have been more live shows like it.
And then, of course, there was Justice.
The honest truth: I'm a fan of Justice, but I don't really have much to say about their live show. I've seen them twice now, and both times I've found the concerts highly danceable and very, very well-mixed, but there's not really much to watch, unfortunately.
I mean, there's the ever-present glowing cross, combined with an effective light show, and the tall construction on which they perform atop. Their live show definitely provides a certain atmosphere, I'll give them that. I could get down to it, and appreciate what they were doing. But neither time did it rock my socks off. (Of course, in the context of the UAF 2012 that may have been because it was simply way too hot to wear any socks.)
A trip to the future
Moonbotica at around 1am was the only time during the entire festival where I went to the legendary late night "second stage". A hot dark indoor venue, it was quite hard to actually see what was happening on the stage itself, and I must confess to have only caught perhaps a cursory glimpse of the Moonbotica guys themselves.
That said, it was a pretty cool sci-fi little concert. Laser lights were being shot at us the entire time like accelerating colourful particles. It was very hypnotizing and went with ultra-funky and melodic (ie. not techno) electronic music. It was the last concert I would see at the festival this year, and allowed me to leave on a good note.
So, in closing: the organization was disorderly, bone-driven, and likely to cause cancer. The timetable was a constantly-changing mess of delays, cancellations, and schedule changes. The line-up, meanwhile, consisted of predominantly boring music being played back boringly on people's laptops, making the few really good live acts seem amazing. On the other hand, the Festivalgelände was among the best I have seen in Austria.
Will I return for Urban Art Forms 2013? Doubtful. But have no fears, Schwarzlsee, you have not seen the last of me.