nic0 did a wonderful writeup of the first Farmfest party in Denmark.
You can view the original article
here. It'll be quoted below to ensure it stays around!
Also available
Farmfest '09 Live BlogThe following writeup is by nic0On the 14th of August, I broke my 1.5 year party-break, so this report should be read in that light. I'm not very used to hanging out at partys, and so you must forgive me for referring to not-so-recent ways of doing things. Perhaps technology have sped past me and some of the points I bring up here are already deprecated, like the old venerable steam train got taken over by a new magnetic powered superrailway. But I digress.
The party Farmfest was held for the very first time this year, the main organizers being the honorable Malodix and his charming better half Zyps. Prior to the party I had never heard of either of them(surely my own fault for being such a slacker) or the party or the fact that someone was stark raving mad enough to host a party on a farm, and all of this made me overcome my inherent fear of meeting new people and venture away.
We travelled to the partyplace, using train + bus which was a solid experience. The instructions on the party website were fine and we managed to get there in one piece. The party was to take place at an actual farm, and the partyhall was a stable, decked out in hot chicks, lots of IT-gear and some angry old demosceners. I think when the party peaked, it held something around 20-25 people. Now, all of this might sound strange, but it actually made for a quite rural and coherent experience. I'd be a bit worried about how the party would scale, but Zyps told me that the farm would be rebuilt some time with more space.
The place was cozy, with chairs and old couches all over, and i mean all over, the place. There were some dogs too, a few cats, even free-roaming hens, something that did my hippie heart good :) Farmfest indeed! The partyplace had a bar too with reasonable prices, profits from which went into the coffers of the organisation running the thing for doing more events - the way it should be. So all in all, the amenities were fine even if a bit on the cramped side, should the party explode in size, like TRSAC will this year.
The actual compos consisted of the standard categories and kudos must go to the organisers for keeping enthusiasm high even if the entries weren't FLOWING in - its a small party in its very youth and god knows getting people to contribute even while AT the party is tough enough. A slight bit of advice might be, that the compos were scheduled to take place on sunday evening, and the party running all the way through monday. Thats a gamble, and can easily backfire, as monday was a normal workday and most people really wanted to go home on sunday to be able to work on monday. I enjoyed being there an extra day thoroughly, but I'm a student... if the party really should run into monday, I suggest doing the compos saturday night, and then having a massive massive party on sunday night/evening for the slackers, students and other hobos such as myself - that way what most demosceners come for can be achieved.
Moving on from the planning, the bigscreen was fab, and it either had demos, or funny videos running on it at all times, meaning that even for someone who weren't working on anything, there was entertainment to be had. This added to the cozy tone, and it never felt like anyone hi-jacked the screen.
The actual compos were neat enough, even if I have to complain SLIGHTLY over the punctuality of the compos - they should be on time if nothing else because people expect such things... thats a point that could be improved, and even if it does sound slightly old-fartish it's a valid point (for all demopartys too).
There was a massive barbeque and a campfire too. Both were awesome, and had actual sofas around them, courtesy of the Farmfest community... that really really rocked, and me, Cheesy and Master-S managed to solve the riddle of women around the campfire a few times, and it just added to the nice rural feeling. The place had a swimmingpool - yes an actual f***ing swimmingpool, so I didn't shower - i swimmed! that was awesome^2 even if most people were wussies and didn't want to join into our manly fun :)
All in all the highlights of the party where:
- meeting Malodix, Zops and Knark
- meeting the parents of the house who were very nice too
- the amenities: animals, couches, pools, barbeques, the handjob i got in the other barn
- the general optimistic and happy feel of the community around the farm - it was infectious even to an old angry man such as myself
I will definitely be back if there's another farmfest next year!
