Haldern Pop 2007 Sum Up¶
321 words on Haldern
This is my sum up for the Haldern Pop festival in 2007. Also read about what happened on Thursday and Friday and Saturday. Or read about previous Haldern Pop festivals.
- Early in spring this year’s Haldern festival didn’t look like the most promising one, band-wise. A number of decent bands were listed, as were the great Shout Out Louds, but that was about it. Slowly, however, the line-up improved and once we had Malajube and Architecture in Helsinki on the list, it was clear that having bought the tickets wasn’t a bad idea. Particularly with my friends from England and Holland coming along. Add to all this that apart from the bit of mud at the beginning and slightly chilly nights the weather was excellent – sunny but not outrageously hot – and we had a good weekend.
- One thing I found remarkable this year was how many bands expressed that they were happy playing there and that they enjoyed the festival, the lake and the atmosphere during their stay. Perhaps that also causes better playing…
- While I had the impression that the sound or mixing was rather poor for a few bands (and good for others), there were generally interesting things to hear. String instruments seem to be quite popular in pop music these days. And a number of odd instruments, from exotic percussion devices to a cheese grater to a saw appeared as well.
- It’s quite funny to look at the countries in the festival’s line up this year. The UK gave us by far the greatest number of bands on stage, with Sweden following as a distant second (and if my counting isn’t wrong, then Germany and then Australia/Belgium/USA/Irland)
- It was fun to look at the shirts people were wearing again. While I often find it difficult to recognise the faces of people, I seem to have much fewer difficulties to remember what a shirt looks like.
