Sweden’s Secret Island Festival Reveals Its Secrets (27 July- 2 August)

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“Secret Island is different from other festivals, there’s a genuine family feeling in an incredible beauty spot where you’ll have a great time even if you happen to not like techno music. It’s the overall concept of the event that people find appealing, it’s the entire package rather than the whole package, most people don’t care which particular DJs are playing.”

Sunset

Though Secret Island’s 2009 line-up includes Berlin DJs such as Salon Renate’s Peak, Gigolo’s Joel Alter, Tresor’s Fidelity Kastrow and live acts DOP and Yapacc, Secret Island organiser Bjorn is impressively blasé about the key pulling points of his week long event.

“Actually all the artists we book always put a lot of effort into their shows to impress, though as a matter of fact, no DJ will, and has ever been, paid a fee,” he reveals, “Nevertheless I receive way more requests than I could possibly fit into the timetable.”

Taking place on a remote, usually deserted island, located just off the West Coast of Sweden, the week long August event combines alternative politics and partying, for a crowd of around 500 party people most of whom end up help physically building each event entirely from scratch.

“We’ve now done a number of small open air Secret Island events and each time we’ve been struck both by the strong community feeling present amongst everybody and the huge creative potential amongst both guests and participants,” says Bjorn.

“This festival is about combining nature, music and hedonism with the experiment of creating a society according to our image of utopia. So in practise, staff and DJs are joined by political visionaries to entertain and stimulate guests brains and bodies.”

The majority of revellers are from either Sweden or Berlin (reflecting Bjorn’s half Swedish/ half German heritage precisely, with several hundred travelling from the German capital on coaches available for either 7 day or 4 day packages. Many bring typical German habits such as nude sunbathing, Bjorn confirms, with himself an enthusiastic adopter.

“We are out in nature and being naked is pretty natural,” he points out.

“Before hitting Secret Island you should leave your social education and barriers on the boat,” he advises, “Quite a few are brave enough not to care and they jump into the sea nude. Personally the first thing I do every day is take a swim- naked- the moment I wake up. Though like everything else on the island, it’s only an option: there’s no compulsion to swim or sunbathe nude, or to do anything else.”

There’s also a typically minimalist approach to toilet activities, with some respite for the squeamish.

“There’s not even a tree is on the island but, stunningly, there’s a small wooden hut includes 4 toilettes,” he laughs, “Alternatively, the open sea will take care of everything.”

island life

Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): I know you had some issues with the local authorities at previous events, how are they reacting to this year’s event?

Secret Island (Bjorn): “Generally there is not much going on in the nearby fishing villages to occupy or distract the local police and Coast Guard, so they know exactly what we’re doing based on previous years. It’s complex how they react toward us; it seems to depend primarily on which person is in charge. In previous years they’ve either been initially sceptical and then very helpful or conversely they have this feeling they must be authoritative when other people are having fun and disturb us.

Last year we were given an 8 page long contract allowing us to be on the island and carry out political activities but no music or party was allowed after 11pm from 40 hours before the event started. The Coast Guard and police came and checked up several times before we really started and after talking to them for say half an hour we got the impression they really liked what we were doing and they didn’t actually disturb us at all during the party.

When a heavy storm came up right towards the end of the festival they even flew by with a helicopter to check if we all were OK. Great! On the other hand some local cops seemed to be bored and came to check our guests who were waiting in the small harbour to be picked up by our boats, for ID. After a while they started searching their bags for no reason. Whatever they were looking for they couldn’t find but then later on they decided to take one of our guests in to the police station for a piss test – one of the two black guys among hundreds of people. That choice really upset me, especially because they were so helpful before on all other issues.”

Skrufff: How important is the music policy overall?

Secret Island (Bjorn): “The festival has two stages, one is the social experiment of having random people on a island proclaiming their own temporary state looking for better ways and rules of living together than our capitalistic and materialist oriented society. Then after 5 days of this project we will have a great party with music from Friday until Sunday. Then the focus is on the music.”

Skrufff: In practical terms: what do islanders need to bring with them as a minimum (eg tents, food, swimming costumes, medicine? umbrellas?)

Secret Island (Bjorn): “they should bring personal stuff for camping, such as a tent, sleeping bag and inflatable mattresses, Umbrellas? mmm, nah, if it rains it rains and we all gather in the big tents. Some aspirin makes sense, and people should bring their hottest bikini, unless they prefer to swim naked. The most important thing to bring is your positive energy and creativity and to express it via your funky wardrobe. Fishing gear? Body paint? Great! Just don’t bring too much stuff if you come on one of our buses from Berlin.”

Skrufff; What’s the weather usually like, what’s the worst you’ve experienced, and given that there’s no natural cover, what happens when it rains?

Secret Island (Bjorn): “The worst story may scare quite a few people, there was a big storm last year which started Sunday and continued for way too long: it blew away a few tents. The island is by the open sea which implies constant weather changes. In the morning it may be too hot to stay inside your tent, in the afternoon you may need a raincoat but again, two hours later you will be watching the stunning sunset on the cliffs catching the last sun rays. In a nutshell, a bikini is as important as a raincoat.”

http://www.secret-island.eu (Secret Island takes place from Monday July 27 to Sunday August 2, with 8 day tickets available for 100 euros and 4 day ones for €60. Coach packages are also available from Berlin)