The festival busy bees have a lot on their minds. Come whatever time of day or night when they find an hour or two to rest, the on-board part of the festival crew returns home to the ship to fall into a comatose slumber. Not a second do they waste thinking about why this place feels so comfortable, homey and safe. Perhaps, on the way down, they pause for a cigarette or a beer on deck, hanging out there with the one or two others who always – always! - seem to be hanging out there.

But who are these one or two others and what are they doing there? Euphemistically called “friends,” “helpers” or “supporters”, these brave characters are far from being lazy slackers. They are: the DECK SHIFT FIGHTERS. Awake around the clock, apparent laziness is but a mask for these wary guards, their courageous nature, and their superhuman powers in protecting the Lovis from nightly drunks, thieves, curious hordes of tourists, and any other human or non-human threat to the boat and its weary inhabitants day and night, in the possibly menacing harbour of Gdansk.

On my first 2-hour deck shift, a rainy wet afternoon under an umbrella, well supplied with coffee, beer, cigarettes, tea and cookies, with good company and time for a relaxing talk for the first time since the beginning of the festival, I got my first glimpse of the dark side. Jochen, deck shift champion - spending up to 48 sleepless hours on deck, a familiar and welcoming figure aboard, but always observing, watching, guarding, was recalling the forenight of the shift which he braved together with deck shift superheroes Arne, Kim and Tim (sorry if I forgot anybody in the credits). A big, completely wasted Gdansk native was leaning on the railing…. Leaning…. Leaning… and then fell into the water with a humongous splash (thought unclear whether this was a wilfull suicide attempt or a disoriented step in the wrong direction), rocking the gentle Lovis. Without a second of thought, Arne dived. It took all the deck shift superhuman power to save this victim of a cocktail of various strange and unknown drugs from drowning. The ambulance came about an hour later to pick up the oblivious 90 kilos of person.

So dear festival team: do not forget the stories from the dark side. For while we are busy distributing flyers, building up beamers, making interviews, answering phone calls, driving, working, sweating on the festival - the deck shift superheroes are secretly protecting us, guarding our home and property, rescuing lives!!!