Day 3 - Bodies, Bodies Everywhere!

It's like a campsite without grizzly bears or grandpa's recycled stories.
Participants, exhausted from all of the surrounding excitement, crash inside the open arena, defying The Gathering's most important commandment: "Thou shalt not sleep." For some, falling asleep in the arena is a challenge as noises can be overbearing; nevertheless, for most, spending nights in a place free of charge is an uber-deal, considering that most local hostels and hotels are booked weeks in advance, only offering available rooms at a king's ransom.

Those who sleep have an unusual immunity to noise. This immunity makes the 24-hour radiation of low bass tones, high-pitched screams and keyboard clicks into nothing more than good vibrations. Those who don't sleep depend on insomnia, natural energy or energy drinks—like Panther—to stay awake. Moreover, participants depending on energy drinks may have to sling back a few of them as Norwegian law limits energy drinks to no more than 150mg of caffeine per liter.

Around 12:00P.M., those who managed to get some shut-eye arise from sleeping bags and inflatable beds like mummies, reentering their chairs and punching-in for another long shift of gaming, programming, movie-watching and/or digital art-creation.

Besides taking time out of their computer lives to sleep, these participants also enjoy other endeavors at The Gathering—political endeavors. Most would think that these participants only stay indoors on a computer, listening to the Banana Phone melody: ring, ring, ring... However, as can be seen in the video, these participants actually do go outside, stepping into snow and sunlight, carrying picket signs, melting the ice in the frosty city with stomping feet and heavy fists.


The political endeavors relate to a tax levied on tickets sold by The Gathering. These taxes increase each ticket's price by 160 NOK (US $31). The Gathering argues that this increase could cause “a drastic cut to all aspects of the event"; in effect, to protest the tax, The Gathering’s fans, administrators and participants—over 2000 people in total—marched downtown to square off with politicians.

The Gathering’s administrators and participants argue that The Gathering is a “non-profit, cultural event, thus not eligible for VAT.”

If the politicians do not see eye-to-eye with this argument, The Gathering will be required to pay taxes for 2006 and 2007 in addition to taxes for the upcoming years.

To help The Gathering in its epic battle against the government, Andrew and I built an elite army of snowmen. Here, you can see me putting a helmet on the militia's leader—General Snowflake.

General Snowflake is known for his various military successes and wartime innovations. General Snowflake's military strategies are studied all over the world. Furthermore, General Snowflake takes no prisoners. When asked for comment, General Snowflake only said: "ARNE! We will prevail!!"

I think we can all find some sort of appreciation for a talking pile of snow.