December 30th 1998 - January 1st 1999
This is what I wrote in an email to a mailing list I'm on after arriving back in Wellington:
"Honestly - I was a little apprehensive with the thought of 8000+ out-of-it punters going nutsorama - not to mention extreme hippiness and wafting body odour, but I have had many superb events in my time and The Gathering is up there in the top three.
I even enjoyed my set which was the cause of much anguish and stress in the days leading up to it ... so BIG UPS to everyone who went and smiled at me and made my foray in 1999 such a pleasant experience. I think I grinned non stop the whole time I was down there, and danced pretty much solidly for 48 hours (with short breaks for massage and fruit smoothies).
I'm planning on relocating to the UK in about 6 months but will DEFINITELY be back for the Gathering in 2000 - the biggest trip yet.
:)
Yay yay! K xx"
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The Gathering is made up of 7 zones: Inside the 3 enormous marquee tents you can soak up drum ' bass, happy hard or house/funk music. Outside there's a primo trance zone, an ambient/lounge naural ampitheatre and a short trip away, a jazz, classical and movie "field". Closer to the camping area is a tribal/world zone - comprising of congo drums and digeridoos and that sort of thing.
It's hard to describe the setup ... but I'll give it a go. Acres of beautiful native NZ bush, tall wooded trees, virtually flat fields, volcanic ampitheatres ... in addition to the music there are tattooists, every kind of food you can imagine, smart drug stalls, lots of fresh coffee, fruit, clothes shops, jewellery, massage ... portaloos - showers and oh bliss, a river! There was even a guy dispensing cash from his van - yay for EFT POS ...
Because the site is up in the mountain ranges, during the day the heat is INTENSE - soaring into the 30's but at night it plummets to almost freezing. During the day dancing outside you had to remember to slap on the sunblock, and at night before heading off on an adventure you needed to throw on several layers of fleecy things.
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My set was in the House tent (shown here) from 9am - 10:30am, which turned out to be the perfect time for the funkateer brigade - I got the tail end of the munters from the night before and some bright young things who couldn't suppress their urge to dance. It's a spiritual thang. |
Aside from playing, my highlights included several live acts - Unit 23, Salmonella Dub and Sanctus as well as some primo Wellington based DJ talent in the form of Clint Smiley, John Saunders and Filter.
Congratulations to Alison Green and her crew for a well organised event - I've heard no complaints about any aspect of the Gathering. Apparently 9000 people were there with no trouble reported - yet in other parts of New Zealand there were drunken riots and in the Coromandel alone 200 people were arrested in ONE night!
The magic truly was in the music. Everyone I came into contact with was full of love, smiles, hugs, kind words and good vibes. Kind of the OPPOSITE of a rugby crowd after losing a game ... it was awesome dancing in a different environment too. A luxury actually, after thinking a sweaty pumping club was as close to nirvana as we could get.
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| On the ferry on the way over. L to R: Dion aka Ruffstep, Jas aka Clint Smiley, Sean aka Sean, Lincoln aka the Missing Link and Lily Star aka Teth etc. | The bus stops for a break ... |
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| Loungin' in the Jazz n' Classical area. L to R: Phil, me and Rob. | Me on the ferry on the way back, all smiles. |
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| Boys on board: Link, Sean, Lewis, Kava and Jason. :) | Blow me! Lily & Link. |
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This is the view from the Pelorus Bridge between Motueka and Nelson. That river is IMPRESSIVE. Our lovely bus driver stopped to let the hot n' sweaty punters jump in - that's our posse standing round on the rocks. I was particularly taken by the Auckland posse of Kingites who had never been to the South Island - I hope they'll be back. What swell fellas. They were blown away by the fact that they'd heard "Bob" in the drum n' bass tent AND the trance zone, "wow, Bob Sinclar?" I enthused ... "Nah man. Bob MARLEY." Ah. If you're interested in knowing more about the Gathering, check out the official site. (It may not be online though). |