After spending a few days of vacation in Kristiansand, I got on the train to Fredrikstad for yet another festival. I had been to Gamle Fredrikstad before, so I knew the surroundings – but wait, they can’t shut off this tourist place completely?!

I was a bit confused when I checked out the festival grounds – half of the festival wasn’t even separated off, so you didn’t need a ticket to get in. So what exactly did I pay 950 NOK for? Especially, as there was only one or maybe two interesting bands that played on another day but Saturday? Well, the reason was that I wanted to go with a friend and have a great weekend, but as she got sick, I was on my own. At least I got rid of the second ticket fairly easily, so then I could start to care for the music. Just that there really wasn’t a lot to care for… The first bands were just plain out boring. So after a while, I went back to the hotel and returned for Farmers Market. And they, sorry, were just awful in my opinion. Of course, that was played very well, but it’s just annoying to listen to. Except for the last song where they connected lots and lots of well-known melodies, that was really great! But the rest of the concert was boring. And I was terribly cold…

Then it finally got a bit better when I went over to the other stage to see Bøyen Beng. No clue what the lyrics were about, but the music was real old punk, and that was great fun. I was reluctant to return to the other stage – the headliner was some Swedish rapper…

But hey – it turned out the highlight of the day! I had expected something in Eminem style (or whatever), but that was more Seeed combined with The Busters and a bit of Deichkind. There’s probably more fitting comparisons, but those are the bands that came to my mind. And all of that in Swedish! Really cool. And the third Swedish band after Håkan Hellström and Bob Hund who made an impression on me this week…

Didn’t really care for the “Balkan Beats” party and the band afterwards, so I just stayed to check them out and left. All in all, the day was rather weird, I don’t even really know what I enjoyed and what not. Somehow it all felt a bit dull, even though the whole impression of the festival was pretty positive.

The Saturday started out very nice. I went by the literature scene, understood pretty much, actually, and it was quite fun. But: It was raining, so my mood was way down, of course.

I had planned to go over to Fredrikstad to find something to eat there (the choice of food on the festival ground was pretty limited), but after strolling around a bit and walking over to the supermarket and back to the hotel, it was already quite late, and I wasn’t too fond of getting on the ferry, running around desparately looking for Kebap places and jumping right back onto the ferry to go back. Plus – there might be some rockstars walking around that you might or might not want to talk to, you know…? =;-)

So I spent some more time around the festival (it wasn’t even raining anymore), discovering a great impro theater group (that I saw a few more times that weekend, they were really funny!). Then at some point in time, I settled in front of the main stage, with my book and a drink, waiting for the band before Skambankt to finish. And of course always being on the lookout for rockstars. *g*

The Skambankt concert was great (check out the report here, if you like). And this time without tunnel vision.=;-) And then it was weird fan girl time for me! Because by then, Kaizers were “in the house” and walking around, of course – which means I need to know where there are and I can think about whether to go there and talk to them or not. *rolleyes* You don’t want to know how often you can change your mind in half an hour… In the end, I did NOT talk to any of them, but that was absolutely okay. =;-)

Anyway. Then it was time for Tommy Tokyo, which I enjoyed pretty much. And after that, I bumped into the Skambankt guys and got my questions… well, not really answered, but I could ask them at least.=;-) So that was quite nice.

Then a fantastic Kaizers show (report, if you want to know more), and as I didn’t spot the people I met throughout the day after the concert, I went home right away. That’s something I’ve learned by now – don’t hang around after concerts hoping and waiting for things that are not going to happen. And it IS never going to happen that after a concert, the band comes out, points at you and says “we want to talk to you!”
(And if it WOULD happen, it would probably mean something bad, right? *g*)

So, all in all a great day. I’m used to the fact that at festivals with “my” bands, I’m more busy watching out for the band members than enjoying other concerts. It’s stupid, but that’s the way I am… and well, this time it was two great concerts, so no reason to complain.

OK, the next day. Yeah, this would be a great day! Sunshine, warm, and no rockstars to watch out for! And especially no pondering about “should I walk up to them”, “what should I say”, “did I just make a fool out of myself” etc. =;-) Just a quiet day, without thoughts that make my head explode…

I actually wanted to see the impro theater again, but obviously they had given a wrong time, at least there was nobody there (I did catch them lateron that day again though, luckily). The literature scene wouldn’t start before two hours later. So I decided to take the ferry over to Fredrikstad, walk around a bit, find something to eat and just relax with my book. I did take the ferry, I walked around a bit, found out there wasn’t really anything to see, didn’t find a Kebap place and wasn’t really hungry anyway, and decided I could relax at the festival site as well, so I went back pretty soon.

Got off the ferry, and… bumped into a Kaizer. =;-)

And yes, I AM bad at small talk, and even worse at small talk in Norwegian. And I wasn’t prepared. *g* So I spent the rest of the day thinking about how big a fool I had made out of myself, whether it was my fault or not, and what else I could/should have said. *argh* But then, it was so nice! He could have just walked by…

Anyway. I went on to the literature scene, couldn’t concentrate, walked on a bit and stumbled onto the impro theater again, yeah! =:-) Then back to the literature scene to some Swedish poet who was performing his poems to music. SO cool! And I could even understand most of it! Well, another Swedish artist…

The rest of the day was rather uneventful – first I spent some hours reading, then it was time for Katzenjammer, who were great again, and the rest of the bands were just annoying and/or boring. Which means that I went back to the hotel after the first two songs of the headliner – but there were hardly any people there anyway.

All in all, the festival was very nice – but rather small. And the band schedule was weird. Putting all good bands on the same day doesn’t really attract people for the other days. =;-) But all in all, another nice festival. Not as good as Slottsfjell though!