PARTY.SAN 2009

Hell Is Here!

[Dajana] Welcome To Hell Fellows!!!... To say it with the words of the organizers ;)
I’m back! I survived my first PARTY.SAN open air and I am totally thrilled, almost going nuts about this festival now ;) What a great festival! All I can say is: PARTY.SAN is from now on my favorite festival!
[Claudia] Hell-o Metalheads! For me it was already the fifth edition and as the previous issues it was again a hell of a festival, I truly had a blast! Helleluyah!!!

:: stories :: Thursday :: Friday :: Saturday ::

:: photos :: Thursday :: Friday :: Saturday :: Fans ::

[Dajana] Two chicks on the road, heading towards Bad Berka; Claudia I actually impressed to writing services ;) The weather turned out to be grandiose, downright hellish hot, at least till Saturday night, where thunderclouds released a few raindrops. The journey went well, actually uneventful and pretty slippy. Likewise quick we checked in and built up the tent. Time for the first beer! Erm… no, no beer! The beer was still on the road and like one and a half hours away. The last JDC (Jack Daniel-Coke) can of Forta Rock had to bite the dust *laughs* … and went straight up to head…
[Claudia] As for me it’s a tradition that the first beer gets opened when the tent is up and the sleeping bag arranged. And so I did, I had cooled ones with me. AND YES… at this hellish heat, beer went up straight to head, leaving us tipsy, dizzy and silly ;) NOW we are ready for the festival. Hell is open!!!
P.S. To co-write was the deal to take me for this ride ;)

[Dajana] And we went on this relaxed way. Summer-holiday-party-mood everywhere. The dudes next to us even had their potted palm trees with them and a few steps further a certain basement-banana played a not inconsiderable part, till it got snatched, kidnapped and… um… used for purposes other than intended ;) On the (VIP) camping ground even flowers were blossoming and most existential questions was: to freeze water to crushed ice or in a heart-shape form? Ya know, long drinks wanted to be served cooled ;)
[Claudia] Yeah, it’s always again much entertaining to watch people arranging their camp surrounding homely. People even take their sofas with them.
[Dajana] Yep, I wonder, what else they left home to have the necessary space for that sofa…

[Dajana] Before the PARTY.SAN OPEN AIR got kicked off und Thursday evening we had a stroll over the festival ground where Claudia introduced to all important things. Beer (Köstritzer pils and stout) got served for 2 Euros (0,4l). Grrrrrreat! A lot of food but quite expensive, nothing less than 4 Euros (except for a Crepe without anything for 3,50 Euros maybe). The prices at the party tent I can’t remember *laughs* I at least did not go home broke… Water toilets, showers, daily cleaned Dixis, and a shuttle bus to the city (all 45 mins). A breakfast tent, lotsa merch stalls and a tent for the RockHard/Legacy signing sessions.
[Claudia] I and many other ones missed the Nagelfood-stall. In the previous years we got some really good food there and for less money. The prices for beer are really a great thing ;) Only these deposit chips got on nerves.

[Dajana] Backstage things were likewise solid. Huge tent for breakfast, lunch and dinner – by the way all classic East-German dishes *yummmmi* Everything I had was really tasty the people really nice.
[Claudia] Agreed! ;)

[Dajana] The best thing at PARTY.SAN is of course the fact that you have only ONE stage, with the bands playing after each other with a break of 15 minutes in between. All bands had the same playing time always in the same rhythm. That is what I call a relaxed festival event. No burnt bands, no stress, no time confusions, just great :)
There have been some sound problems on stage as well as at the party tent, but that didn’t do any harm so far.
[Claudia] Yes, I agree, it’s a great thing to have only one stage. During the breaks there is enough time to have a look around, to meet up with friends, to go to the toilets or to get you something to drink again. Besides, the PARTY.SAN is with approx. 9.000 fans still kind of familiar. And if you loose friends… go to Brutz & Brakel and you will find them back ;)

[Dajana] Though, there was one negative point, a huge negative point! The stage-security… *arghhhhhhh* And only the stage security! First I found them unreasonably rude against fans and crowd-surfers, secondly we (the photographers) got much bullied. They “allowed” us only 2 minutes to take photos. And, since security people are seemingly unable to count till 3, I didn’t wonder that they also couldn’t read the clock either. Means, we of course never got these 2 minutes, 60 seconds instead, sometime 90 seconds… Furthermore we were not allowed to cross the line of the security people. Those who did got banned from the photopit for the rest of the festival. Oh, the photopit was like 10 meters wide, security took 8m and left us 2 m directly in front of the stage, which was over 2m high, plus racks for the pyros and the camera people… fuck you guys!
BUT… after massive complaints, security changed their mind after the half of the second day and gave us 2 or 3 tracks from this point on… at theirs discretion. Do I have to mention that they now had problems to count till 3??? Oh, and we got 7m of the photopit’s wide now.

[Dajana] But one question remained unanswered: where the hell was the “Hell Is Here” banner left, usually to find on top of the stage?
[Claudia] That’s something I would like to know too.