Covenant.
Photo by: Tomas Engin

It had been 364 well-awaited days, since the Arvika Festival took place last time, and when the gates opened on Friday on July 10, happy people quickly filled the area to its bursting-point. Not entirely surprising all of the 8500 tickets were sold out days before the festival, and expectations were more than high with bands like Sisters of Mercy, Moby and DAF.DOS headlining it all.
Friday's first concerts of intrest were the Subspace Communication-packet, that contained performances in a row from Sista mannen på jorden, Cat Rapes Dog, Covenant, S.P.O.C.K. Despite various computer-breakdowns and problems the bands managed to deliver an impressive and literally boiling hot experience, that might have took a while to recover from. Brilliantly though, in that perspective, Rammstein who was supposed to play right after, cancelled their gig, and the opportunity to unwind a bit to DiLeva (that replaced them) was given instead.
Afterwards Kent continued in their usual winning way, until DAF.DOS entered the scene next to. And for the few ones with any trace of energy left then, there was the possibility to dance it away until the early morning, while the rest could always return to the muddy camping and perhaps sleep for an hour or two.
After a rainy night, Saturday started off with shyly sunshine and Malaise that played with a new line-up. The bright day carried on, and a couple of hours later it was time for Saft to magnify the happy spirit, that was in the air all weekend long. Also Apoptygma Berzerk contributed, later on, to that feeling with their energetic music. So did even Moby during the same evening, and that besides probably left an impression on anyone watching him dash around and play music, at the same time.
Though the two last and most magic hours were still to come, as Sisters of Mercy appeared on stage around midnight, spellbinding the audience with one classic tune after another. And once again had the Arvika Festival proved their utter brilliance, and there was no better thing to do, than start counting days again. /Sussi Pettersson