This summer a strange phenomenon has haunted the polish part of the baltic coastline, that has been intensively observed by local anthropologists. Their observations and the effects that the event took on the local culture are summarized here.

A sailingship inhabitet by a bunch of hippies in doubtful hygienic conditions from all parts of the world took every chance to molest the coastal population with shortfilms, strange music and performances. The visits where only short but had a longlasting effect on the local traditions.

As an example, the “Extraterrestial Egg” a discotheque whose DJ-doorman has been rocking the crowds with Scooter and Dr. Alban for years has suddenly switched to playing an up to then unknown mix of electronic music with random tracks of Michael Jackson. Furthermore it is since then “en vougue” to wear cushion-stuffed shirts and blondehaired whigs and attach trash to your sweater. The peculiarity to gather in the harbor at night and project intentionally bad subtiteled movies on the sails of the ships has found a great resonance, too. Once in a while the youth has adopted the strange habit that one of them spontaneously undresses himself, runs off into the flat sea for half a mile and then returns with a misterious smile on his face. Also in the field of fashion new standards have been set. Untamed facial hair has eversince been combined with beelyfree sweaters and dirty feet emerging from armystyle trousers are decorated by tropically toefree hawaianas.

However the custom of the sailers to live on a diet of couscous and Bionade for months and turning even the tyniest “Aunt-Emma-Shop” upside down in the search of rolling tobacco has not been adopted, neither has the strange habit of wildly waiving around with papermâchè-whales and a giant fork been introduced into local habits. The polish part of the sailing-gang successfuly convinced their fellow nationals to establish the slightly weird habit of performing sudden singing orgies and sticking socks with animal motives behind their ears.

Also the newly acquired sailing skills where followed by the local population with great interest. Occasional wild changes of the course when a “Landrat” grabbed the steering wheel again, followed by the hectic activation of the ships motor where interpreted as an ongoing part of last days performance, especially when the odd crewmember got tangled up in a rope or when once again ten people were pulling on the wrong rope with unbreakable enthusiasm. Only the captain and his crew watched the show with stoical calmness.

Ok, actually this story is “mildly exaggerated” and the truth is written on another paper. I personally think that the festival was a full success up till now! After years of preparation the aim of bringin together people with different cultural backgrounds to enhance the conciousness for environmental issues in general and specificly in relation to the baltic sea through a cultural approach was fully reached and exceeded my expectations! Not to forget the “good vibes” on the ship! Lovis forever!
Luv, Jochen