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Posted by: gemma
on
11/08/08
Steffen from the Nachtdigital Festival sent me this photo over the weekend, taken at this year's wonderful event in the Bungalowdorf Olganitz in Germany where James Holden made a special guest appearance:
The fellow dressed as a fox was our driver Nico, although he wasn't wearing the fox outfit when he picked us up from the airport - he suddenly reappeared dressed in it just before James took to the stage. As the lovely Four Tet's set drew to a close (his first in Germany for a long time), the festival staff began to assemble on the dancefloor directly in front of the stage, all dressed in matching white t-shirts. They then proceeded to perform a ten-minute long choreographed dance routine, the centrepiece of which saw our foxy-driver hugging a giant pink bunny in tribute to this year's festival logo, before someone else in a kind of Wicker-owl contraption emerged, making the whole thing feel like some kind of ancient pagan ceremony revived for the modern day music festival format. Check out the Nachtdigital Flickr gallery for more photos of the madness...
All of which made quite an introduction for secret guest James, triumphantly returning to the festival after last year's legendary extended 7 hour long marathon set covering for Andre Galluzzi (whose cat had apparently just died). Booking James again at this year's festival would have seemed like the obvious thing to do for most promoters, but perhaps a little too obvious for those sensitive and subtle folks from Nachtdigital, which is why they were so keen to keep this return visit a surprise right up until the moment that James took to the stage. Which is why you won't have spotted this particular show listed in James' events calendar; I would dearly have loved to mention it on here sooner too, as this is one special festival that the world ought to know about. Even when we got to the festival on the evening itself, James still had to remain hidden in the backstage bungalow: at one point he borrowed Kieran's hooded top so that we could take a look around the site, but when we noticed that someone in a Border Community t-shirt had started to follow us, we made a hasty retreat back inside. Which of course only added to the fun!
With only two stages and an array of quirky handmade decorations, the Nachtdigital Festival is a friendly, cosy, intimate affair with a top quality electronic line-up and spot-on production standards. And I would wholeheartedly recommend getting yourself a ticket for next year's event, whether James is playing or not!
The fellow dressed as a fox was our driver Nico, although he wasn't wearing the fox outfit when he picked us up from the airport - he suddenly reappeared dressed in it just before James took to the stage. As the lovely Four Tet's set drew to a close (his first in Germany for a long time), the festival staff began to assemble on the dancefloor directly in front of the stage, all dressed in matching white t-shirts. They then proceeded to perform a ten-minute long choreographed dance routine, the centrepiece of which saw our foxy-driver hugging a giant pink bunny in tribute to this year's festival logo, before someone else in a kind of Wicker-owl contraption emerged, making the whole thing feel like some kind of ancient pagan ceremony revived for the modern day music festival format. Check out the Nachtdigital Flickr gallery for more photos of the madness...
All of which made quite an introduction for secret guest James, triumphantly returning to the festival after last year's legendary extended 7 hour long marathon set covering for Andre Galluzzi (whose cat had apparently just died). Booking James again at this year's festival would have seemed like the obvious thing to do for most promoters, but perhaps a little too obvious for those sensitive and subtle folks from Nachtdigital, which is why they were so keen to keep this return visit a surprise right up until the moment that James took to the stage. Which is why you won't have spotted this particular show listed in James' events calendar; I would dearly have loved to mention it on here sooner too, as this is one special festival that the world ought to know about. Even when we got to the festival on the evening itself, James still had to remain hidden in the backstage bungalow: at one point he borrowed Kieran's hooded top so that we could take a look around the site, but when we noticed that someone in a Border Community t-shirt had started to follow us, we made a hasty retreat back inside. Which of course only added to the fun!
With only two stages and an array of quirky handmade decorations, the Nachtdigital Festival is a friendly, cosy, intimate affair with a top quality electronic line-up and spot-on production standards. And I would wholeheartedly recommend getting yourself a ticket for next year's event, whether James is playing or not!
Labels: Holden
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people dressed as foxes is probably one of my favorite things in the world...
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