Knute-blues

Oh Knutepunkt…

The annual Nordic role-playing convention with a strong emphasis on live-action role-playing (also known as LARP) was this year held at Haraldvangen in Norway. So that meant that I had to join this year. I visited Knutepunkt 4 years ago, last time it were in Norway, but I was only a little girl back then (cause’ I’m so grown up now, right?) and did not really participate. That meant that this was my first official Knutepunkt. And wow, what an experience.

So to try to sum up what KP is.. it’s a gathering of geeks, artist, actors, philosophers (and so on) that all have in common that they are LARPers. We come together to discuss LARP in all ways. Theoretical, physical, meta, borders, everything that pops up in one LARPers head spreads like a disease of creativity and explodes in a marvelous rainbow. At least so it feels. For a long weekend we listen to talks, have workshops, play games (all kinds of games ifyouknowwhatImean), discuss and both share and make new experiences. What a great place, right?

Now you may think that this is some kind of old fart seminar where we are sooo theoretical and only have panel discussions and boring lectures, but(!) then you did not think about all the nationalities (and wierd people) involved. KP contains mostly Norwegians, Sweedes, Danes and Finns (these are also the contries that takes turs orginizing KP), but there is now also people from all over the world. Portugal, Israel, the US, Czech Republic, Palestina, the UK and more. What a mess you say. What a great opportunity I say. This means that you not only have the different experiences from the Nordic contries, you now also have influences from everywhere (EVERYWHERE). It’s bound to be one great party.

The awesome reason I’m a LARPer

I hope that gave you some kind of picture of what Knutepunkt is. Now to my experience. Although it was my first Knutepunkt I did not quite feel like a newbie. I have, after all, been LARPing my whole life (2nd generation LARPers FTW!) So I knew a lot of the people there from before. Still I have never experienced anything near this in my entire life. I think I may have attended fewer program items this year than last time. Instead I used a lot of my time to process all of the impressions I got by meeting and talking to people (gawd I love to talk). Still the program items I did attend to was so overwhelmingly great. I learned things I did not know was possible to learn.

Timo and Allan curing the malaria

Emma talking about ways guys and gals sit at the Gender 101 talk

As Norwegian LARPers we have to have at least one or two rituals during this kind of gatherings (and as a Grasmo I have to have something to do with it.)

Making Styx

The last evening there was a great party (dramatic pause…)that was held in Styx. The organizers did a great job with the somewhat improvised ritual and the decorations of «Styx». The spirit of the party was magic and the dance floor were moving even when the power went out. Then there were drums and shanting instead. I even got to dance some swing and realized that I had not forgotten all of the lifts and drops I once knew.

Preparations of the ritual.

After every Knutepunkt I have learned that you get something called «the Knutepunkt-blues» and I’m yet another (not so) silent victim (not the Danish kind). I’m left alone in my room in Kungälv, and everything feels so insignificant . My exhibition, the pictures, our trip to the Faroe Islands, all of it has lost its importance. All I want to do is be creative, discuss, learn, feed my mind. I miss the KP feeling, the surrealistic KP-world that I was granted a whole long weekend in. The smiles on everybodys faces, the accept and the opportunity to talk to whomever you met, although you did not know them from before. I miss all the people I got to know (hint), all the intellectuals, all the love. But there will be a next year, and I will be there.

The Goodbyes
(and the only picture I found of me. And I thought I were a «linselus»)

Thank you organizer, folks, friends and fiends. See you next year.

And last but not least, an owl! (Or two)

Beware, the owls are not what they seem

Seriously don’t trust’em