Distance '97 - a party report.                          .punisher/instinct.

                    Written on the 8th of december 1997.

A couple of days ago, I got a phonecall from Soda/Instinct, the editor of
Retro. He told me that he desperatly needed some articles for his mag, and
that he would appreciate some support from me. Why not?, I thought for
myself. It could prove fun to write an article, instead of the letters I
write all the time. That's why I decided to write a party report from 
Distance'97, a combined amiga and pc party arranged in Oslo a couple of
months ago. Before I begin, I would like to tell you that I'm not an
article writer, so please excuse me for my lame english. Here we go!!

The weather was nice and sunny when we arrived at the party place, which
was located at Tveita in Oslo. The party place was exactly the same as
Kindergarden 6 and 7, which was very positive for all of us. A big centre
with lot's of shops was only 100 metres away, and beside this, the party
hall was magnificent. Probably the best facilities used for a party ever.
In short, I would like to say that everything was in place for a great
party. When entering the party hall, Firestarter/Instinct and I was
shocked. Shocked by the sight of only 12 pc-lamers. No one else had
entered the hall. The organisers hadn't even managed to get hold of
tables, so we had to sit outside the hall or just hang around the shops at

the centre. Fuck. The party should have started at twelve'o'clock, but
there were almost no visitors. We decided to ask the organisers about the
problems. The answer we got was that the tables would be delivered in a
couple of hours. We also asked why there was so few visitors - to that they
answered that a lot of people would arrive later. Trusting the organisers,
Firestarter and I waited. We waited for many hours, but no tables or people
arrived. In the evening we decided to connect us at the powernet, and steal
some tables. We did that, and the organisers didn't do anything. Other
people did the same, and through that night, Firestarter and I wrote 
letters to our contacts. A thing we could have done at home, and saved a
lot of money. This was the first day of Distance'97. One of the biggest
parties in norway, with over 15 attenders. Applause! 

The next day, friday, was also sunny and shiny. It was hot, and we stayed
outside most of the time. Wasn't much to do inside the hall. No amiga
sceners to talk too, only some pc geeks. Nothing much happened before the
evening. Amiga sceners began to arrive. People from Contraz, Instinct,
Apathy and Ephidrena. The atmosphere rose. Three people from my group,
Instinct, arrived. We began working on some productions for the 
competitions, and didn't give a fuck about the tables, which hadn't arrived
yet. The result was that friday night was quite productive for all of us.

Saturday. The day with the deadlines. The day when the tables would
arrive. People waited, but no tables. No tables at all. The organisers
blamed the company they had rented tables from, but that didn't have much
effect on the party guests. Therefore they decided to take some tables
from  the other hall. What a great idea, ehh? ;) Things got solved, and
the party continued. We had a great deal of fun this day, but that was not
thanks to the organisers! In my opinion, some of the organisers were real
lame. They didn't even know what a handle was. Why choose such organisers 
for a sceneparty? I don't know. Anyway, not all all of the organisers were
lame - Some of them were actually quite professional.

Sunday. Competition day. We managed to finish two 80k intros right before
the deadline. Sadly there weren't many amiga productions released. Only
one 80k intro from ephidrena and two 80k intros from Instinct. The
Ephidrena intro was very good. (I won't say anything about the instinct
intros, as I'm a member of that group myself!) it contained some cool
effects and funny graphics. After the competitions some of the Instinct 
members went to the shopping-centre. Firestarter, Soda, Chauple, Tentacle 
and I called some contacts through one of the phoneboxes. The reason for 
that was that Firestarter knew a trick to fake the payment of the
phoneboxes. We could almost call for free. We called blaze in Poland, and
I think he must have been quite shocked when hearing that we called him
from Norway. Later that day, we had to leave. The party was over. 
Fortuantly it turned out to be an ok party after all. Of course not in the 
same "quality-class" as the Kindergarden, but quite ok.