Sunday at Mekka & Symposium'98
written on 13/apr/1998 by PJ Dynamix / Comic Pirates 
Related web-site: http://ms.demo.org

Flim picked me up at 09:00 in the morning and after a few coffees we drove
to Abomp (who was still sleeping when we called him!).

At 12:30 we arrived at Fallingbostel and after some hamburgers we've set
anchor at the party-place, the 'Heidemark Halle'.
The parking-place was quite full and we saw a lot of people infront of the
entrance.

A big shock was the entrance fee (50,-DM) for just one day!
Surviving that shock and after a little discussion (pay or to enter the hall
like pirates usually do) - we've decided to pay and entered the hall.
We saw long rows of tables with lot's of computers and monitors on it and
real crazy people sitting infront of their machines. Light-sources have been
turned off and so it was kind of dark in the building. The quality of the air
decreases as deeper you walk in.
On our way through the hall (on the hunt for known faces) we saw a
Padua-banner hanging on the right side besides that big, big video-screen.
Still looking for Anonym/Padua we asked some guys sitting below the banner.
A guy with a cap turned his head and it was BRIX/Plush - playing WORMS on
Playstation. We had a few cigarettes and talked a bit about the days before
we arrived.

Still searching for familiar faces we decided to spread our yearly Network
Surveys (about 400). It turned out that we didn't have enough, as about
800 people filled the party-hall. Relaxing a bit on some chairs, studying the
informations on the video-screen, we've been smoking some more cigarettes.
Meanwhile we were listening to the first event (since we were there), the
music competition with entries from Silicon Records, Abyss&Mitch, Haujobb,
Amable/TDR, Avena, Aenigma, G.O.D. and others.

The most freaked out scener competition was an event which looked quite
strange on us, as we've never seen that before. Some (real crazy) sceners
having 30secs time to bring people into crazy mood. The guy who won the
competition was Matt (from spain) always asking for money and boots.
People were throwing their money towards him and he (and some helpers)
started collecting all pieces. We met Matt before standing besided his
monitor when he was filling our survey and we read his sign:
'If you have 5000,- DM and you don't need it, give it to me and you feel
better!' :)

Another freaky show was the computer puzzle competition, where two visitors
had to place the letters on an empty keyboard. I tried with Abomp to place
the upper row of keys, with no success. I could imagine, that noone was able
to solve the problem, while Steeler managed the show.

Very interesting was the 1, 2 or 3 show for sceners, as six visitors got
eight questions and were jumping around to find the right answer displayed on
the screen.

The pc demo competition was presented with about two hours delay and we
filled up our camera with some screenshots and started our way back home.

A friend reported, that we missed the most exciting event:
Someone (ed: we know him) offered his girlfriend to marry him in his
demo(, with some misspelling). His girlfriend went up to the screen and said:
"Yes, Andre. I love you!". The hall was confused.
Some laughed and some cried.