I’m getting ready to go to the Headway Festival 2007 in Amstelveen (near Amsterdam), NL, this weekend. Although Headway is happening indoors, in P60, I will take a tent and a sleeping bag; I suppose I’ll be in for a little adventure.
The original plan was to go see both days of the festival: To-Mera, Sun Caged and California’s Zero Hour on Friday, and Saturday ending with a triple play of Loch Vostok, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and finally, Redemption. (Besides, what is it with Californian prog metal acts and websites that end in …web.com?)
So, I would go with some friends, we’d get some hotel rooms, and drive home Saturday night. As is often the case with plans, they’re subject to change. It turned out that we had to leave Friday night for personal reasons. Aside from not seeing SGM, that raised some problems: A week after we planned the trip, I got accredited to take photos for Bright Eyes Magazine, who, naturally, want me to cover both days. There was also the minor issue of having to cancel the hotel reservations, but that was free of charge, luckily. However, with no one else staying, I had to look for new accomodation, and good luck with that in Amsterdam, on Easter.
There was no chance I could get any hotel close enough to the venue for that time, and there was no chance in hell I would pay €230 per night at the Dorint or some similarly luxurious place, when all I needed and wanted was a floor to lay on, and maybe a roof over my head. Only rather late did it occur to me to check for hostels, bed and breakfast, and… camping grounds!
So now, after everyone else leaves on Friday night, I will try to get to the camping site Het Amsterdamse Bos, crawl into my tent, and hope I won’t freeze. Then, on Saturday night, do the same thing. On Sunday, well-rested (I hope), I’ll start marching towards Amsterdam Zuid WTC train station, to board an ICE going back home. Sound fun? Hell yes. Until you try to put two sleeping bags and a tent and some clothes into a photo backpack… 🙂
I’m off to bed, for too little sleep and trying to fit too many things into too small a bag, and then to go to the Netherlands for some good, old, concert photography. Cross your fingers for good weather 🙂
‘Till Monday! \m/