MEKKA & SYMPOSIUM 1998 ---------------------- Fallingbostel/Germany April 10 - 13, 1998 Welcome to another party-report. This time I am here to tell you all the inside stories of THE scene-event in 1998. Mekka & Symposium was definately the KICKER so far in my party-history. The organizers definately topped themselves by far compared to last time. "BIGGER, BETTER, MORE" should have been the slogan I bet. Me and some friends already arrived on Friday very (!) early morning at the party-place, like in the previous year, and we were quite suprised not to see many people hanging or walking around. To top this shock unfortunately KB was already in testing his cordless microphone by singing stupid crap all the time! You can count this as the worst event of the whole party! Before the opening of the party we already got our hub to start networking in twisted pair! Unbelievable... a WORKING network was quite a suprise for anybody who has been at THE PARTY 1997. Funnily also at the SymMek there where multiple power breakdowns and no steady Internet conection, but who cares as it is about the real (!) party-spirit what we care for. The party-place filled up pretty fast on Friday afternoon with lotsa people from all kinds of scenes and groups. Focusing the C64 I can just say that all important groups were more or less present, for further details please see list below, which has been created by Chaotic and converted into Relax Text Format by RRR [thanx for that Jan and Timo!]. Eventhough I guarantee that there were more... but what the heck. Taking a closer look at the activity at the party itself I must say that the beloved "showmaster" Steeler wasn't in such a good mood for the first 36hours but getting much better to the end. The stage-activities where going from the simple guess-games up to a SUPERB acapella SID-music competition. Sweet young men performing old SID tunes live and acapella for the crowd and the contestants to guess. Brilliant! Also some very weird outdoor-competitons where just great fun. Chained people where forced to grab a disk with their mouth out of a water-pool. Well, nice idea.. but stupid people really doing that, as it was kinda cold outside. Luckily they found enough wackos. To make the event even sceduled better the time was filled with activities by sceners which are normally not involved into the planning, such as a "Most Phreaked Out Scener" hosted by someone named SLIME (was real good action!). Or the every-year-mega-loved live-performance by the APP... which was unfortunately stopped by flying beercans! ;> The competitions related to C64 weren't a that big suprise, but still the highlight of the whole event, as none really cares about PC-64-KB or whatever! The real spirit still is a thing that just belongs to C64. Also suprisingly good was the food-supply. Not always the cheapest, but atleast steady and tasty, having French fries (Pommes Frites) and sausages outside and snacks and bread inside. Now to something positive that ALL other parties should really try to manage as good as the SymMek-organizers did! THE TOILETS! Hell, it was the first time in my whole party-life that I wasn't scared to go to the toilets! A damn great work by a few damn good-looking girls, which weren't treated well enough all the time in my eyes. I am ashamed of being a part of the scene when I see some lame sceners treating them like idiots just because the clean toilets. I am also feeling ashamed to be a part of the scene when I recognize that MANY sceners where staring at those girls such as if it was the first time they saw them in real and not on the screen as a porn. It is really questionable if sceners are a race that can survive for long, as it seems they are not able to have a normal contact to women. And in case they ever get they have to tell everybody... [are we talking about a smashed fridge?]. But back to party! At the SymMek there were somehow more girls then on any other scene-related party before! Also I'd like to mention here that there were toll-free showers right next to my table. Those were guarded while the girls were showering and always clean. A point that has been critisised on many parties before is the one about the sleeping. Also here the organizers had the perfect solution. During the night the hall was kept quite silent, except if Tobi/APP was singing all the time, which means you could sleep under/on the tables or even behind the big screen. And in case you wanted the 100% silence you had the great opportunity to sleep in seperate halls 5 meters away from the party-place. Heated... mostly. ;) Besides the pseudo-creativity of some DJs trying to perform live with average scene music most people can be considered as very friendly and suprisingly not having any types of so-called elite-attitudes. My advice for someone who wants to go to a scene-party for the first time in his life is NOT to go there.... as you will be pissed about ANY other party you go to. The Symposium & Mekka has grown to a currently unstoppable scene-event which shouldn't be missed by ANYONE. If you do not go there you are just stupid. I'd really like to see all of you there in 1999 and begg for a more enthusiastic Steeler with stronger nerves! The competition results are the following: CBM 64 DEMO COMPETITION ----------------------- Pos. Points Production Author -------------------------------------------------------------------- 01. 274 Our Darkness Smash Designs 02. 170 Reanim8ed Hitmen 03. 162 Krestyron Oxyron 04. 118 Splish Splash Padua 05. 99 Payday Smash Designs 06. 98 Trip to Nepa(l) 2 Cascade 07. 75 Licence WOW 08. 46 Purpose of Life Whathas2BSaid 09. 45 Booze Metalvotze 10. 40 Oldstyle Willow 11. 22 Beerstation WOW 12. 14 Daehmon Shitmen & Hotst. 13. 11 Ficken im Zelt Seminar CBM 64 4 KB COMPETITION ----------------------- Pos. Points Production Author -------------------------------------------------------------------- 01. 459 Smash AEG 02. 165 Double-Plasma Flip 03. 123 Just for fun Didi 04. 103 <4KB Leonardo 05. 72 Oldschool The Syndrom 06. 67 Style Iceman 07. 57 Ficken - T. S. R. Karlsquell Serwiss 08. 45 Ficken Bitbreaker CBM 64 GRAPHIC COMPETITION -------------------------- Pos. Points Production Author -------------------------------------------------------------------- 01. 397 Du gem. Mörder Rayden 02. 206 Fantastica Wurst Hans 03. 165 I'll remember Hardsequencer 04. 118 Welcome to Telekom Raze 05. 105 Firestarter Sebaloz 06. 85 Chris Hülsbeck Zealot 07. 53 Tyrany AEG 08. 39 Monster Katon 09. 35 Knight Crayon 10. 25 Lurking Death Assassin 11. 23 Love Zeitgeist 12. 17 Dissector Brainsmasher 13. 16 Kentucky Flip 14. 14 Amazon Bleze 15. 11 Porträt d. P. K. T. Bugjam 16. 6 Emptyview Hogan CBM 64 MUSIC COMPETITION ------------------------ Pos. Points Production Author -------------------------------------------------------------------- 01. 461 Living Black Taxim 02. 120 Stars Leo 03. 107 Compo-Tune BAX 04. 101 Going the distance.. Rayden 05. 95 Licence Alien 06. 87 Visions in Goa Q-Man 07. 67 Dark Entry Sonic 08. 65 Watery Fanta 09. 59 VHF0 The Syndrom 10. 39 To You 2 Top Secret 11. 39 Organic Brizz/Panic 12. 37 Melody Suxx Fantastic Zool 13. 36 Reformation Manex 14. 34 Till the end Lunatic 15. 30 Gavelion Fuben 16. 28 5h-Work Flip 17. 16 LULU Heinmück 18. 13 In your eyes Floyd 19. 2 VHD Greatrix The guestlist looked like this: ------------------------------- A-BOMP/Comic Pirates, ACIDCHILD/Triad, AEG/Smash ALIEN/WOW, ANAKIN/TRS SEA, ANESTESIA/Crossline, ANIMALO/Laxity Nostalgia, ANONYM/Padua, AXIS/Oxyron, BITBREAKER/Metalvotze, BLEZE/Willow & TUM Laxity, BOMBE/Smash Designs, BRAINSTORM/ Commodore Connection Line, BRIX/Plush, BRIZZ/Panic Ascraeus, BUD/WOW, BUGJAM/Role, CARLOS/Cas cade, CHAOTIC/Smash Designs Hitmen, COUNT ZERO/ Success & TRC Cyberpunx, CREB/Excess, CUPID/ Padua Hitmen, CURLIN/Hitmen, DAN DEE/Laxity Nostalgia, DANO/Padua, DANZIG/Alpha Flight 1970, DEEKAY/Crest Onslaught, DENNIS/Role, DIDI/Laxity Nostalgia, DOC OF DESIRE/Willow Civitas, DODGER/Dytec, DONAR/Onslaught, DOSH/Centric, DOW JONES/Plush, DRAGO MACKAYB/Metalvotze, DST/WOW EARTHQUAKE/Cosmic Style, ECSIC/Excess Asc0re, EINSTEIN/WOW, FANTA/Bass/Oxyron, FANTASTIC ZOOL/TUM & Willow/Smash Designs, FATMAN/Dytec Remember, FLARE/Noname, FLIM FLAM/Comic Pirates, FLIP/Centric, FLOYD/Willow & TUM Tempest Panic, FUBEN/Oxyron, GHOST/EXCESS, GODOT/The Obsessed Maniacs, GRAHAM/Oxyron, GREATRIX/Cult, GROEPAZ/Hitmen, HEAVY HEAD/Netphreakers/APP, HEINMCK/TUM & Willow Blutpopel, HLSP/Siesta, HONK/Plush, HOGAN/Reflex, HOOGO/Padua, ICEMAN/ WOW, JACK ALIEN/Remember, JIHAD/Hitmen, KB/The Obsessed Maniacs Smash Designs, KBS/Laxity, LEONARDO/Padua, LUKE/The Obsessed Maniacs, LUNATIC/Cult, LYBIS/WOW, MACGYVER/DMAgic, MAP/ Plush, MBB/TUM & Willow, MEPHISTO/Metalvotze, MEGASTYLE/TTM, MR. LEE/Cascade, NED/APP AFL 1970 Hybrid Netphreakers, NEOTEC/F4CG, NINJA/ Dreams, PEACEMAKER/Hitmen, PJ DYNAMIX/Comic PIRATES, PRINCE/The Obsessed Maniacs, Q-MAN/ Willow, RAYDEN/Alpha Flight 1970, SAM/Cult, SCARE/ Active, SEBA/Plush, SEBALOZ/Lepsi De, SEVEN/Digital Excess, {slave}FRIESE/APP/Omen, SONIC/SDS, SONY/Smash Designs, Sorex/Role WOW, SPUTNICK/ Civitas Willow, SYNDROM/TIA/Crest, TECHNO/Therapy, TERROR/Willow, TGI/Paralyze, TOP SECRET/Cult, TYRON/Hitmen, UNLOCK/Albion, V.O./Plush, WARP 8/ Flash Inc./Cosmic Style and ZEALOT/Out Of Order. My personal rating of this party is 10/10. ned@alphaflight.c64.org -------------------------------------------------------------------- Courtesy of Relax Magazine/Relax Online @ --------------------------------------------------------------------