MP: ANDalusian Sun: Lolomo wins after more than 2 years of gruelling competition!

[Amhazair]

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

The Gentse Feesten is a music and theatre festival in the city of Ghent (Belgium). Besides stage events there is a large variaty of random small street acts. It starts on the Saturday before July 21 (Belgium's national holiday) and lasts ten days. The last day (always a Monday) is known as De dag van de lege portemonnees (The day of the empty wallets) alluding to the fact that many people have spent their last penny at the festival, and is by the people of Ghent seen as their day while the stream of visitors from other places ceases.


The first Gentse Feesten were held in 1843. The intensity of the festivities changed throughout the years, sometimes very strong and radiant (e.g. the 100-year anniversary was said to be very festive and lively), but sometimes also very low-key.

The modern day Gentse Feesten were started in the summer of 1969 by Ghent singer Walter De Buck and the people from the Trefpunt cafe. In the beginning the festival consisted of one stage near the Saint Jacob Church. Since the late eighties the festival has grown enormously and now covers the whole inner city of Ghent.

Although the festival has become a mass event, it has retained some of the rebellious and anarchistic atmosphere of the early days. Public drunkenness is not entirely unseen.*

About 2 million visitors attend the festival every year, making it one of the biggest cultural and popular festivals in Europe. The number of unique visitors on top nights surpasses 250,000. In a 2005 ranking by www.localfestivities.com, the Gentse Feesten was called the third biggest city festival in Europe, only preceded by the Fallas in Valencia and the Oktoberfest in Munich.

Traditionally the shows at the festival have been free, and the main events still are**, but in the later years a number of side festivals have chosen the period of the Gentse Feesten to organize separate events.

Gent Jazz Festival (formerly Blue Note Festival) (since 2002): jazz festival, the first years in the Castle of Counts and then in the Bijloke abbey.
Comedy Festival Gent (since 2007): comedy festival at JOC Rabot, which also hosts a few English-speaking shows.
International Puppetbuskerfestival: festival for puppet players spread over the whole city.
International Street Theater Festival: street theater
Polé Polé Festival (since 2003): World Music at the Korenlei and Graslei.
Ten Days Off (since 1995): electronic dance music in the Vooruit. Around 20.000 visitors in 2005.
Boomtown (since 2002): Alternative music.
Ground Zero Festival [1] (2009): Free no-nonsense music festival in Damberd Jazz-café on the Korenmarkt

*This might in fact be something of an understatement. It's often quite funny to take my bike to work in the morning and ride through the city center, seeing some of the late (early) revelers drag themselves home.
** Keeping the 'Feesten' free is a returning struggle for the organisers, but so far they're mananging, through a combination of sponsorship, city funding and, of course, licencing a huge amount of food & drink stands.

Yeah, I might in fact be a bit late to sing the praises of this wonderful event since it, like, started last weekend, but, what can I say, this is my first quiet evening at home since the start of the events, (need to recuparate sometime, right?) and I didn't think to blow the trumpet before. Since I've been living and working in the wonderful town of Ghent for the last 15 years I'm honor bound to enjoy it as much as possible. (And not only on the day of the empty wallets, you Wikipedia mugs.)

Aside from the pointless prattle I occasionally like to engage in you may also consider this post as appology for any rushed turns I may submit and advance warning for a possible extension request. (Still have to puzzle out when the turn after this one should be due and what I'll be doing those days.)

[Dimaz]

Hosting postponed for ANDalusian_Sun by 48 hours. The game will now host at 12:25 GMT on Monday July 25th.

[don_Pablo]

Arco went AI last turn

[WraithLord]

Yucks

So who captained that sinking boat, almost to end?

[don_Pablo]

Originally Posted by Dimaz

... I'll be away till the beginning of August, if you start your game in August I can join too.

It seems Dimaz will hardly answer soon...

[WraithLord]

Hey, it's just one month to wait

[Dimaz]

Arco was played by Baalz if my information is correct.
Also, I'm going to leave soon and I'll be away 28.07 - 8.08. Most likely I'll have Internet access by GPRS on my ppc but it's hard to do admin duties this way. I hope Amhazair will be able to substitute me as admin during this time. However, if for some reason you'll need to contact me, it's better to use gmail box dimazzz80. I'll try to check it once or twice a day.
Hope nothing will go too wrong during this period.

[Amhazair]

Baalz, huh? Damn, I thought I had him pegged as *some other nation*.

I'm obviously available for admin issues in case of an emergency, (and it's likely to be too short a time to start recognising patterns and learn peoples identity) but I'll see if I can scrounge up a temporary admin for this period to be on the safe side anyway.

[Amhazair]

DrPraetorius has kindly agreed to take over admin duties during Dimaz' abscence, so if anything adminny needs to be done, feel free to contact him about it.

[DrPraetorious]

I check the forums twice a day; but please give me plenty of advance warning if you need a delay.