The King of The Kups

I wrote this blog about 5 weeks into the Magneet festival.  I was angry, and felt let down and a little distant from the festival.  I am still going to post it though, because like songs, it's good to keep things in their emotional state, so you can look back and learn......

The King of The Kups

It has been more than a month since I went back to the Magneet terrain to start building the lounge with Ron and to get ready for a party I felt would be like no other.  Some of the fondest memories of my partying and traveling life came from this place last year and I was eager to meet up with all the old faces again, but this time bring a lot more of Liverpool to the place......

It has been an incredible experience yet again, but in many different ways.  The good times have come from bonding with Ron, and learning how a master really creates something special.  The parties we have had in the lounge and the people I have met.  But I have a completely different experience with the organisation.  Any entity that is run completely on a voluntary basis, brings with it a certain chaos that I felt has made what I have tried to bring to the festival a lot harder, and ruined relationships with the bands I have asked to come over and play...

The sun shines like a desert drain, the landscape is bare apart from the few tents and constructions that have been their since the keys to the dykes were handed over.  I arrive with Greg, a manic depressant who I met in Paris.  After pulling him around on Roller skates because he refused to sort himself a bike out, we see Ron just unpacking the lounge.  I tell Greg, that this place is a chance to prove yourself, if you work hard, and put your heart into it, it will be appreciated with the best party and atmosphere you could wish for. I made some good friends here last time, and since returning, they have helped me to really live and feel like an Amsterdamster.  His head wasn’t in the right place for Amsterdam though, or heavy physical labour, and he lasted a few hours before getting a ride straight back to France.  I was in the mood for getting stuck in though, and building something special with Ron....

Ron is one of those rare beautiful, care free and creative genius souls in this world that I always find I get on well with.  Someone who gets things done, and is straight, strong and to the point.  As well being a brilliant artist with no organisation skills and a curse of losing everything he tries so hard not to.  He has a vision like no other, and finds the most perfect use for things you would walk past in the street.  His place is a finely decorated work of art, and every touch has been placed there for positivity.  The ambience combed and styled with a fine tooth comb, junk and scrap all given a stylish part to play in the decoration of what is the most luxurious place in a festival on the sands.  Its like stepping into a VIP night club.  Ron, as the builder of this wonder, looks with pride as the room is full of people dancing and enjoying this living work of art we call ‘The Lounge’.

I start to help in any way I can, it is hard to understand how all the bits work and the systems and process for building it.  But I do whatever I can and learn a great deal along the way.  Me and Ron have very big personalities, and we are quite similar in a lot of ways, but we don’t clash (often) and act like an old couple and good strong partnership.  We look after eachother, because we feel we are the outcasts of the festival.  We were told that we were the ‘pain the arse’ of the place, which hurts a lot when we think about how much work and love we tried to put into what we created.  We are both completely broke, with massive debts behind us, we came to the festival even though the fee kept getting reduced from the original agreement and more was being asked of us for less.  We were promised to be looked after with food and drink, and be given a cut of the beer sold from our place, but yet again, things were made harder for us, and it seemed every promise was getting broken and I was starting to feel guilty eating the meals there, because of the way they screamed at Yolande, who is Rons dear friend who painted all the lounge and sorted the kitchen out.  Made her feel like she didn’t have the right to eat a meal like the volunteers or sip a beer without guilt like the organisers and staff do.  She was told to sit there and wait until Ron came back, just looking at a meal going cold.  Thats when I started to taste the coldness of the atmosphere and the brutal grip on every penny a young festival must have to survive.

Last year the festival was a failure and calamity in many ways.  Massive debts were created and big hard lessons learned.  It had its great moments for the people involved, who still partied hard and went through an incredible experience together.  The feeling of being together with everyone last year is what made it so special.  But this year, I have felt very isolated from the Magneet and been given a very different experience.

The man behind Magneet is Jesse, a bright shining crazy soul in this world, who gives all or nothing on what he believes in.  His ego can make him do some fucked up stuff when he is partying, but everyone seems to just accept it because it’s Jesse, and that’s the way he is.  I don’t know what he did before the Magneet Bar, but he I hear he is an artist of some kind, or film maker.  He could be doing a million things or nothing.  But his bright coloured clothes and boyish smile and character just tell you that he is one of those creative crazy types. 

Legend has it, the Magneet bar started at the biggest festival in Holland, Lowlands.  Jesse from his tent gave beers away to people who would come and perform or play a few songs at the party he would throw.  This then grew into a bar, with the same party ethos.  I hear tales of legendary secret parties through tunnels made in caravans that would lead to the special party Jesse was throwing.  After years at Lowlands, feeling detached from the changes and growth it had been through, he decided to throw his own festival.  The idea became a big reality, and big lessons were learned on how insanely massive a job putting on a festival for 3000 people really is. 

This year, it has sold out almost every day, it looks like the debts have been cleared and they may start making some money.  I am so happy for them, but feel a little sad as me and Ron have been the grey area of the festival.  Not given clarity on what we were doing or selling, noone seems to know how to deal with us.  We are between a stage and sound setup that the festival has hired for their use, but paid nothing in the amount that even gets close to costs and labour, but then not allowing us to sell what we wish, or be able to cash our coins in to get some more supplies for the toasties in.  We are in a limbo, broke, worked solidly hard and helped the festival massively in the last month, and feel so unappreciated it makes the memories of Magneet a little bitter.

How do you put on a festival, with no money and just debts behind you?  It has been a massive challenge for the Magneet, but they have succeeded it seems.  First of all you create your own economy, your own currency that you have complete control over.  Then you ask 30% of all takings from all stalls, and charge them a hundred euroes a day for being there.  As long as you can fill the place up, it should balance itself out and everyone should get a payday from the work they put in.  There is nothing sadder than building the ultimate party, and noone shows up.

This year they made sure they filled the place up, and have had a hand in everyones takings.  Even the kids who collect the unwanted plastic cups, have been offered deals for a cut of their takings.  Flitz, who is the very bright son of Dani, got taken to one side and was offered the title ‘The King of the Cups’ if he would give them 50 cents from each cup (worth 1e25) and they would make it so it was only he who could change the cups in for money.  He responded ‘I am already a king’ and rejected their offer. 

I am so happy for the Magneet, and everyone involved that it has been such a success, and again, I have some wonderful memories of jamming around a campfire as a pale moon on a clear sky shines down on the dykes.  I am glad that I got to experience the festival from a different perspective.  I now see how chaotic a task it is to run something of this magnitude.  I have had my lows and have felt like just leaving at times, because of the criss cross decisions that change almost every hour, or being passed off to one person after another to try and find some answers for your problems.  But on the whole, I will take away good memories from the place, just very different from the last time.

I regret trying to bring a piece of Liverpool to the place, by asking bands I know to come and play.  It was a big expense for them to come over, and they got lost in the chaos of the organisation not knowing what was happening in terms of schedule or stage times and what ‘The Lounge’ was being used for. 

Tomorrow the final weekend starts, and I feel in a much better place now, than when I started writing this a few days ago.  It is good to get things off your chest, and not to let the frustration a place like this will cause you to bubble up with.  I love all the people involved and I am proud of what they (and we) have achieved.  Maybe next year, I will have a completely different experience again.  Infact, I am quite sure.......