"Chinese Torture, rather than a festival"
Turkish newspaper, Radikal, 22 June 2003.
Yet another failed attempt to resurrect some free love atmosphere.
H2000 is an annual festival that is being held this year for the 4th time in Turkey between June 20-22. The venue shifts around Sariyer in Istanbul, with this year's shindig being stationed at the Marmaracik Bay.
The promise of the event and rumours of artists who might show always throw young Turks into a frenzy. Half of these acts do not show, however, and the festival has yet to host an explosive superstar. Recent artists of repute who graced the stage are the Tindersticks, Republica, The Muse etc. I for one was kicking myself in various places when the Tindersticks came, because I was donned in fatigues and obeying orders from superiors against my will, and couldn't go.
As with all aspiring examples of Woodstock, including its revisiteds, there's a barrage of complaints upon commencement. These range from charging to use the bathrooms, expensive food and drinks, especially water, and a lack of proper shielding from the sun. One other problem that seems to creep up every year is the festival goers' encounter with the military police who give thousands of metal heads, clubbers and other ethereal pilgrims the old "Quo Vadis?" when they finally get to Sariyer. It invariably turns out that the festival organizers have done a bung up job of securing permits to hold the festival on the said location. The venerable governor has to be notified that a crowd rivalling the Chinese Army is waiting outside demanding their right to party. Some finger pointing ensues, "but don't do it again"s are divulged, and the festival goes ahead.
A story in the paper today tells of this year's headaches. The organizing body, 36:42, once again hit a brick wall when it was revealed that permits had not been issued due to incomplete documents and the festival area had not attained the status of public space. This implies that the festival goers and 36:42 are illegally occupying the area. Thus, no bands played on the first day since the stage could not be erected on time. The purported look of the festival is as follows:
Starsailor
Fun Lovin' Criminals
Flavor Flav of Public Enemy
Console
Jake One (Live)
Rubin Steiner Quartet
Athena
Bulent Ortacgil
Ozlem Tekin
Vega
Kutle Kuark (Hakan Kursun)
Replikas
Nefret feat. Ceza & Dr. Fuchs
Direc-t
Anima
Ihtiyac Molasi
Gripin
Dorian
100 Derece
Barikat
Tomcraft (Kosmo Records,GER)
Andrew Weatherall (RGC Tour,UK)
Radioactive Man - Live (RGC Tour,UK)
Leon Roberts aka UBU (Shaboom Records,UK)
Chus (Stereo Productions,ES)
Flash Brothers -Live (Bedrock Records, IL)
Ignas I.V (Atari Promotions,LT)
Frederick Landier (Ninja Tunes,UK)
Milk Doctors (Dj Bory & Silent Runner)
Mert Yücel (Choo Choo Records,TR)
B++ (Barouqe Records,TR)
Tarkan
Tan
Mert Medeni
Beyza
Gokce
Style-Ist
Mert Ergin
MindFreq
Ruffkutz
Tony
Yakuza
DUB & CHILL STAGE:
Da Frogg (Homegrown / Jungle-East)
Soulsonic (Red Room)
100yo (Alicante)
Dj Stoned (Lazy Sound System, Sofia)
Ras Memo (Acik Radio)
Osman Osman (Riddim)
Supermatik (Domestic LoFi)
The Minimiku Allstar
Simon&Memo (Version Forward)
Andy (Lazy Sound System)
Jason (Okay Temiz Rhythm Atolye)
The Gathering
Queen Adreena
Serdar Oztop
Almora
Asafated
Ascraeus
Antisilence
Comma
Cidesphere
Soul Sacrifice
Suspect
EFES DARK DEMO STAGE:
5. Renk
Alt
Anorexia
Asfalt Dünya
Bipolar
Golatkin
Electrip
Fatstar
Gevende
Haykodelic
Lil
Liqweed
Myst
Pickpocket
Pin Up
Punkush
Ronin
Soul Shred
The 4 some's Blues
Yali
Zardanadam