Oppikoppi was definitely the highlight of August, and the rest of the month was lived in the shadows that are known as Post Koppi Depression. For a while there, I though I was going to miss yet another year because over the last 3 years all my friends had suddenly gotten “too old” for things like music festivals (even the ones younger than me). But I caught a lucky break in July, when I mentioned it to GB who was in exactly the same position as me. GB and I have been friends for a long time, but over the last few years, our friendship has morphed into 2 or 3 visits a year and a couple of phone calls. This is a perfectly natural thing when one friend starts having children, because no matter how anti-children they were before the baby comes, once it is here, it is the topic of 98% of conversations. But such is life, and that is a topic for another day. So after getting permission from his wife, we bought our tickets for Oppikoppi and the excitement started.
GB was so excited and he tried to plan everything, even though he has only been to the 2nd Oppikoppi, 18 years ago. This turned into daily phone calls (sometimes as many as 3 or 4 calls a day). It was insane, after a while I kept saying to him he should stop calling me so much as we didn’t even have anything new to talk about, he just laughed and kept calling and we would have the same conversation over and over again. But eventually the 6th arrived and it was time for us to drive to Northam where our adventure began.
Now let me just say that even though the phone calls were way too much for me, and there was the Thursday of me being super irritated at GB for many, many reasons (all of them valid), the rest of the time we had a great time, we got along well and by Sunday, even though I could not wait to go pick up my little princess (the doglet), take a long hot shower and be by myself again, we were still friends, and after 2 days of phone calls, I am yet to hear from him again. So our friendship is intact.
Every one who has ever been to Oppikoppi will agree that there is just no way to describe how awesome it is. It’s like Oppikoppi is it’s own little planet where like-minded, yet totally different people come together for the love of music, alcohol, dust and a good time. Everything, from the minute you unpack the car and strangers come over to help you set up your tent, to jumping up and down in front of a stage with thousands of fans singing along to your favourite bands and finally having to pack up after 3 glorious days to return to the real world and saying goodbye to the strangers who are now new friends, is what makes Oppikoppi one of the best experiences ever..
kaleidoscopicchameleon 