Our entertainment culture is developing: becoming occasionally richer, partially global, and relentlessly taking its indisputable place among the money making mechanisms in our economy.
Below is the Enlish translation of the original article titled "Economics of Entertainment" written by Bikem Ekberzade for a Turkish monthly magazine NStyle.
"I have got a taste in me which is very difficult to describe. I think it is the mixture of what remains after a happy tiredness of cold, music, rain, wind, chat, mud, dance, cold, music, rain, wind, chat, mud, dance ...."
The author of these words is Onursal Yazman, a youngster in his mid-twenties. He loves music, movies and sports. Active, outgoing and social. Good so far? That is exactly what the sponsors for H2000 want in their audience for the Turkish woodstock of music, mud and dance for three days straight in the secluded peace of Omerli, barely 30 minutes out on the outskirts of the megapolis Istanbul.
Can Sagdic is an organizer working for Momentum Bec, one of the main producers of H2000 music festival. He has this to say about the sponsors of this mega-event: "When you look at it from a sponsorship point of view the young masses are the actual target buyers for most of the major labels, as long as you are not in the business of selling industrial tables," he smiles before he continues: "because those are the potantial consumers, and they also are potential future managers, earning money to fend for their own needs," and most importantly those masses are the current market makers who want to have fun and while doing that they do not want to set limits. As for the sponsors, the current "tred-setters", they do so while providing the audience with options for a more "fun", or just plain better way of life: when you say ice-cream the better tasting is Scholler, in jeans the cool brand is Levis, if you are out to get intoxicated then do that drinking Efes beers.
If H2000 is the beginning of a new era in entertainment for the Turkish culture, then what is so different about this organization? The fact that it goes on for 3 days straight? May be. The fact that it has powerful sponsors? Probably. Or rather is it that these sponsors have the niche to market their products to thousands like Onursal, hungry for what is original and different, for a llimited time in a cordonned off area? Or may be the one and only thing that makes this organization different and attractive is entertainment; free from limits, without stopping. So is it the good times that these people are selling to a crowd uneffected by rain, mud, cold, heat, a crowd that is just out there to have fun? Yes. And the more the masses ask for it the more the organizators provide them with: fun and no limits.
Selcuk Kiper is a 26 year old succesful "event-maker." At the same time he is the man who brings the 8,000 something audience the option tyo jump down from industrial machinery, modern name: bungee jumping and scad diving. "I know one thing very well" says Kiper, "and that is to keep people on their toes, bring them new stuff for their enjoyment." According to Kiper what H2000 proves is this: "In Turkey people can just pick up their tents, stay in one place for 3 days and attend a festival." To the question "why this is so suprising?" he replies: "in our society the concept of entertainment has not yet settled. Everyone goes, no one dances. There is an incredible amount of repression [in our society.] So during this 3 day weekend have people been able to break away from this repression? Or in other words was H2000 successful? Both Kiper and Sagdic answer these questions with an enthusiastic "yes." And According to Kiper it was the target audience, the dynamic group of young people into alternative rock and ground breaking design concepts, that made H2000 a success: "There are people who like to have fun in Turkey," says Kiper, "I will roll around in mud, no problem. The question is to make good use of time. Is it raining? who cares. Noone is crying because their "Gucci" outfit was ruined."
Let's quickly go back to the original Woodstock: A festival catering to the supporters of peace and freedom in the new era. The concept is set ("hippie" sells) and the organizers start up all hopeful until something goes awefully wrong. The audience shows up in the concert platform well ahead of the scheduled time. With no ticket offices set yet, and the organizers not wanting to lose face by kicking everybody out and having them come back in WITH tickets (now that would be a bit too capitalistic wouldn't it, a bit of a no-no for that crowd) the show starts and continues with the true sense of the word "freedom." Freedom from profits, from money wrangling capital sponsors, from... oh well, so tells the attendees.
Later on with the messages changing ("hippie" sells, but you need sponsors as well) the example that Woodstock sets gets adopted to many festivels, aka Glostenburry, an example for Sagdic and colleagues when conjuring up H2000.
As Sagdic talks about the "image" H2000 has tried to relay he mentions the ideological differences between the first and the second Woodstocks. According to him, peace was immediately replaced with violence and rebellion as the message relayed to the masses: "Allright, I agree Woodstock is the father of all these festivals but people nowadays want a different form of entertainment, a form of decharging." According to Sagdic in H2000 the overpowering message was taking part in entertainment in peace and happinness. Sounds nice, ain't it?
And may be it is just that, the fact that the "needs" have changed in line with the "message", makes festivals such as H2000 successful.
If need determines message (or just the opposite!) then what is it that we need? Consumption is a need, and so is entertainment. And when both meets? Sagdic comments on their choice for sponsors in H2000: "Why do people consume? They do so when they need something, and often their options are many. But people often like to be one with a brand," and this self indulgement reflects on H2000. So much that the sponsors leave the festival quite happy.
And what is more they are not the only ones that leave the site with a smile on heir faces. The local and foreign music bands that participate seem all pleased with their choice. On the second day of the festical, despite the freezing cold and the omni-present rain the audience is well ready to mud wrestle in front of the main stage. Andy Barlow, the electronic genious of the British band Lamb, jumps over the barricades yelling, "We are all dry here while you are getting wet, it is unfair!"
As drizzle turns into a downpour right around midnight, Gavin Rossadale of Bush, a bit apologetic screams into his microphone, "We should have come to Turkey much earlier!"
The question of need and consumption, so how is enterainment sold to followers of the cult of "music." Are the buyers happy? Now the answer to these tiny gests by both Rossdale and Barlow is an enthusiastic crowd singing out loud the entire set along with the band, and not missing a beat
"First H2000 comes here, later a Mac Donlads opens, Aquapark is built and slowly the area starts building up," says a youngers called Evrim with a tinge of sarcasm. Already talks for an Aquapark are well underway in this corner that civilization forgot, until now. Development seems not far away in this secluded corner of Omerli that civilization seems to have forgotten, or overlooked, until now.Following in the footspteps of a courageous bunch of youngsters the implementers are soon to crowd the region, bringing in their goods for consumption. It will no longer be just the nature and music, but more sponsors, maybe an outlet mall, a few more summer houses here and there and in a few years, and few H2000s later the area will be flooded with options for the audiences of this festival. It is no longer a dream for the people of Omerli, not so much that H2000 was a dream for Sagdic and his partners when they thought the festival up all their lives and implemented it in a matter of 9 months. éFirst you think it is a dream," says Sagdic, "not until you do the first one, noone can think of an organization that they can compare to." The first step is a matter of taking. "It was a land with no infrastructure," says Kiper when talking about the festival site, "they brought in a lot of overhead. It sure will be a lot easier next time around." And so will it from a sponsor point of view, next time around when Sagdic and crew are ready to pitch H2000.
First we had the pubs, then trendier bars were built, later they were taken over by discos, nightclubs... The need for more live shows paved the way to festivals, and when the sponsors came into the picture the numbers only grew. And now H2000. Despite the ticket prices being higher than most other forms of entertainment in Turkey, the 8000 + attendees proved that THIS festival was something that the young Turks craved for.
"You know what it was that encouraged me most," says an enthusiastic Sagdic, "it is that the local folk from Omerli, women with their scarves, the people we see in clubs included everyone had a good time together. And noone messed with anybody else. Noone was disturbed." Truly the townsfolk from Omerli, the workers, or those in the audience, whether they felt estranged from the pierced tatooed crowd, they didn't show. And everyone joined in the fun.
The electronic version of oriental music mingled with "gansta rap" from the DJ tents, as alternative rock bands banged away on the mainstage. To the trained ear tunes from old Turkish bards could be heard under the creeching sounds of an electro-guitar. The music lasted into the wee hours of the morning and the next three days to come. So for those of you that made it or missed it, hope to see you same time, same place, next year. As the co-founder of H2000 Murat Oktensoy assures us that the festival will go on until "the day I die."
Omerli, Haziran 2000
All written and visual material, all rights reserved by Bikem Ekberzade