We were the metal, Ericson stadium the magnet. With the burning heat reaching down to scold our pale defenceless faces we began walking impatiently at a pressing pace towards the stadium. The stadium projected a hum of activity and instrumental sound, which was deafening the ear, already! . We clutched our tickets tightly as though they contained the final ingredient to the cure of cancer. Rapidly consuming energy drinks which were to provide us with the weaponry energy to battle a physically and mentally tiring day of dancing and trancing to magical beats and vocals .
We swarmed with countless other bees to the gate of the hive . The excitement at this point was unmeasurable, indescribable, undefinable . We entered mesmerised, it would have been mentally impossible to take in what surrounded me at once, frozen with shock my eyes flickerd as though malfunctioning, enjoying fragments of what there was to see. There were t shirt sales, pricing stands, EFTPOS machines , people , autograph signing booths , people , stages and people , tents and people , rides , skateboard ramps and more people.
With no knowledge of direction I journeyed into close proximity of the main stage where Australian band “Regurgatator” encouraged thousands of rocking heads. We ventured through the crowd to destination unknown with our path being dictated by others equally as lost. In time I gathered my senses and began to absorb the surroundings the best I could. I obtained the timetable of acts, which educated me, one of my favourite bands “HDU” had begun their set, and I was alarmed! I scarpered with hast to the big tent where they were playing.
Vigorously focused on reaching the front I passionately fought my way through undeserving listeners, to then enjoy their slow mind exploring sounds, I slipd into a hypnotic state of mind swaying to the movement of the trancing beat as pulsating vibrations penetrate my whole body from limb to limb to the end. I tried to battle my way through brick walls of people in pursuit of my now lost friends my fight was soon restricted to a slow stumble, step by step, inch by inch, while breathing sweat infested air I viewed humanity on display up close in all its glory in all its disgrace.
The search for one friend brought the discovery of another from Napier, it was like finding a pin when looking for a needle in a haystack. I attempted to describe the indescribable experience I had endured at the “HDU” set, I then realised I am suffering from temporary hearing loss as they begin screaming down my ears, and still I heard nothing. The day progressed I felt weak and weary, so tired my next step could have provoked leap oracy, vertigo consumed me.
I sought the remedy of food and water to energise my lethargic body and brain dead mind by tailing a queue that stretched as long as Pinocios nose after an age of lies but reward soon came as the dry rivers and lake inside my body flowed rich. After head banging to the verge of headache at the “Shihad” set I tried to vacate the main stage but found myself extricably bound in a crowd that eagerly awaited “Korn” to explode on stage, I was trapped in a sea of hunger, I was trapped in the sea of generation X.
The darkness of night loomed and eventually destroyed the day. Setting the scene for the “Big Day Outs” final ace card “Fat Boy Slim” in the boiler room where we were sardines in a excessively full can, morphing through openings with cockroach capabilities. “Time to go” said the security guard, representing the day”s termination. We reluctantly obeyed all the time uncontrollably looking back, looking back, looking back. Although disappointed we were liberated as life would go on and now at a greater level as we then knew what it was to really live.
