Lowlands Festival Report
August 22nd - 24th 1997

When Hugo, Wouter, Hessel and I arrived, the sun was shining and there was nothing to complain about. There we walked to the entrance of camping 3. Just when we were about to stop I heard my name, Eelke shouted it and we waited for some more people, so we could put our tents @ one place. Than it started to rain, Lowlands is a real Lowlands already, cuz it rained all the time that weekend. After a long wait I decided to put up my tent when it wasn't raining, unfortunately as soon as we were half done it started to rain again. When the tent stood, we walked to the supermarket and Peter spotted me, hell I'm easy to spot w/ my black/red mohawk. He looked for a space for his tent.

Finally it was almost 16:00, that means time for Jabberwocky in Charlie. Jabberwocky was playing their punkrock'n'roll good as I'm used too see them live. Too bad the security already was destroying my fun by not catching any crowdsurfers. Then they picked them up (rough) and also they showed them roughly where to go to. After Jabberwocky we went to Delta, an open air stage. There played Orphanage, a metal band w/ a female singer. They sucked, but we had to wait for Rykers. The hardcore from Rykers isn't the best and I almost fell asleep during their gig. After Rykers ended we waited for about 45 minutes to see Agnostic Front. They kicked ass, I was getting less sleepier by the second. They told that their new album is coming out on Epitaph. After Agnostic Front we waited for Rollins Band. Rollins sucked, because he tried to sing but he can't sing. So we went to Golf to sit on the grass while Pavement was doing their set.

After that I went back to the tent to pick some thingies up and went to the 24 hrs tent for a meeting I had arranged. After the meeting I went to Alpha to dance sometimes till 3:45. On Saturday there was a lousy program. I went with Peter to Sunrise, a silent movie from 1929, while Zita Swoon was playing the music. This was very early so I almost fell asleep sometimes. After that we walked all over the festival area and rested @ Golf while Motorpsycho was playing. We didn't like it that much and left. When it was about 16:45 we went to Alpha to see some Rowwen Hèze. There it was a big party as usual @ their gigs. The both of us wanted to see Lebbis & Jansen. The problem was Foxtrot isn't that big and we knew we had to be there in time for some good seats.

So there we were just before the gong show. The gong show is a show where festivalvisitors have some time, between 1,5 and 5 minutes to do something to entertain the people. That was cool. After that there was an popquiz which sucked. Followed by Carmenian gospel singers. What the fuck is that I thought, it looked like a religious youth day. They even played Happy Days for about 5 times. Finally it was time for Lebbis & Jansen. Their performance was good also they had a lot of funny stuff, like their opening: We start with a good singalong song called Happy Days when everyone started to sing they told them to "fuck off", "satan rules", etc. Because all the assholes in Foxtrot wanted more of those gospelfuckers, Lebbis & Jansen started 30 minutes later and that way we had to miss Dinosaur Jr. That sucked. While Peter was seeing Swell I met Mirella again and we went to Foxtrot. There was the final of the gong show, during the show you already could notice who's going to win. After that it was time for the Abba's. The Abba's fucked up a lot of Abba songs, they've turned them into punk, ska, polka, hardcore versions; they kicked ass. When the Grease cover band started we left and waited outside Foxtrot until we had to go to a meeting.

After the meeting the ones who've stayed went to Alpha to talk and dance from time to time until it was about 4:00. Sunday was the best day for me, because of the European Vans Warped tour. I started by seeing Pigmeat, that means: big party time. After 45 minutes I left to see the Super Vans band in Zulu. Someone fucked up the time schedule so that band wasn't playing. Because of the heat I wanted to buy 2 litres of water @ the supermarket. When we got there they didn't had any water left, so I bought some milk. When we got back, Blink 182 was playing and that was good. After Blink 182 it was time for the Dance Hall Crashers. Although it was too hot I went skanking. The mud was already turned int dust:). Dance Hall Crashers kicked ass. After that I talked with their roadie and he agreed that Less Than Jake should have played on the Lowlands Festival. Then it was time for the Royal Crown Revue. They make punk with horns. It couldn't interest me so I left. I got back in time for Down By Law, their punkcore kicked ass, there was even a circle pit. Limp Bizkit wasn't playing so they had Thumb instead. I already knew that Thumb would suck, so it was time for a pancake.

I just got back in time for Sick Of It All. SOIA played good as usual. I got back from the pit all sweaty, saving some energy for Pennywise. After SOIA it was time for Millencollin. Millencollin wasn't that good, I've seen them do a lot better than that. Finally Pennywise as an end for the European Vans Warped Tour. After some songs Fletcher talked to the security to catch all the crowdsurfers and stuff. After that he said all you kids out there take care of each other and from that moment the stage was taken over by punkz, just to show who's the boss on Lowlands, so Pennywise started to play Bro Hymn while people were crowdsurfing on the stage. Pennywise played about 15 minutes which were filled by 5, 6 or 7 songs. It was the coolest and best FAP gig off all bands which performed on Lowlands. After Pennywise everyone kept on singing Bro Hymn I went back to the tent.

There I heard later that some punkz mad a campfire and a security guard was chased by 30 punkz shouting at him. Around 23:30 I went to the entrance to meet some other people. From there we went to Echo to see Trainspotting. Now I know that I never will see another movie @ Lowlands. After that we went to Alpha to dance and talk. Around 3:10 the music stopped, because peple were having fun with the ropes, which were used to keep thingies in place. From then we went back to the camping to sit under a partytent to empty the last cans of beer. Around 6:00 I went to bed and woke up at 9:00. Then I broke up. Together with Peter I helped Mirella with the partytent. After that I went back home.

Copyright © 1997 Marcel Etten