On Tuesday we played or second show, which was already a bit tighter than the first one. A handful of seminar guests who had already arrived were there, but most of them were still on their way, or checking in to their hotel.


After we finished the show, suddenly all of them walked in (apart from the people from Drak, who got stuck in the airport in Amsterdam). It was great seeing everyone again. As they arrived after the show, we all had plenty of time to say our hellos and catch up on what we'd all been up to since the last time we met.


On Wednesday morning it was time to get to work. But not before we all had breakfast together.


And everyone registrated, got a badge and a festival information pack.


After breakfast, we had to make sure everyone knew everyone else's name. So Kjell and Alex gathered everyone into a big circle and got everyone to introduce themselves with their first name and the country they were from.


Then we moved into the part of Kanonhallen dedicated to the seminar and people gathered around a big piece of paper to write down the questions they would like to see discussed.




Some people spoke about how they worked in their respective countries.
This is Adne (sorry I don't have a Norwegian keyboard).


This is Johan from Ghent - he runs the company with possibly the most unpronounceable name: Kopergietery. Just try it. You can do it.



Michael from Denmark.


Then it was time for lunch. Over lunch, more talking happened - this is a networking event, so that's what people did: try and discover which nets to throw out and which ones to dive into.


After lunch we set up four tables, each with a piece of paper with different questions on them. People spread out and formed four groups to discuss the four different themes.


In the meanwhile, Krister and his team tried to work out how to cook an enormous amount of rice.


After a few hours, the paper on the tables got very full.


So it was time to present the results of the table discussions (either in the shape of more questions or as shared opinions) to the rest of the group.



Then dinner was served.



Everyone came to see Everything Falls Apart


And afterwards there was time for a different kind of networking...

Day 1 at Kanonhallen

Day one of our week at Kanonhallen and this is what we woke up to: winter-wonder-land.
Alex explained to me that there are 3 phases to experiencing snow:

1. you find it all magical and beautiful
2. you find it annoying because it interferes with plans of transport
3. it's magical and beautiful again

Alex went from 1 to 3 in about half an hour.


When we got back into the space we saw that Honza had almost finished the seminar side of the space, which made it all look very real and very beautiful. The 108 lightbulbs were definitely worth the hours of wiring.
Tom's bar looks like it'll be a neverending project: it looks fantastic and I would say it's finished, but every now and then I catch him adding some more detail to it. I have a feeling this may be happening until we leave.

We did a run through and rehearsed some scenes, Krister cooked lunch for us (what luxury), we tidied up the space and played our Chinese game to warm up for the show.


After the show we sat down together over a few drinks. A lot to celebrate: Siri's birthday, first show down, the space looks like it's ours, etc etc etc.

All of a sudden some strange masks came out.


This is the end of the evening. NIE is growing bigger (this is not yet all of us but I'd like to find a moment to do a proper NIE photograph), and today we will be joined by friends from all over Europe.

It's weekend

Wednesday was the last day to rehearse without lights, as on Thursday we were getting the lift to rig everything. We did some music rehearsals, and worked some more on the changes we made since we played the show in Cambridge (about which I will still not say any more - I even have a video I won't post until after we've played the shows).





On Thursday, we had the most beautiful start of the day:


And when we got to Kanonhallen, the lift had been delivered, so we could really set everything up like we wanted, only we were missing one truss, so that had to go up. The boys joined up the pieces.


In the meanwhile, Honza had arrived from Prague. He's responsible for the seminar space. He brought 108 lightbulbs with him and is planning to make a spectacular display. From Monday onwards, we won't be using the striplights at all.



This was a very scary bit: we had to take the truss up, balanced on top of the lift, and put it into the right position. Next Friday we'll have to take it down again. If you want to witness it, you know where to find us...


And yesterday we could rehearse the way it's supposed to be.


I can't wait now for this all to kick off. As of Monday night, it'll be a rollercoaster of fun, excitement, maybe also a little bit of nerves and stress, but it'll be fantastic to see all of those people we've met all over Europe over the past decade.