time well spent
posted by yodi on Tue 29th May, 07 at 09:03:04
Day One (Saturday)
We decided to start the day early, 6:30 to be precise. This would leave us plenty of time for making sure we did not miss anything on the day. We however (despite stopping mid way to collect the tent) awoke the sleepy camp site bang on 8:30. As soon as we could we started pitching the tent and cracked open a beer. My driving was over for the day and in life music and beer go well together. Putting up the tent turned out to be much harder than expected as upon dumping tent and pegs on the ground and chasing the fleeing bags we found we had no hammer. Being quick and not easily deterred me and James proceeded to try monkey island style different object s from the back of the car. The woman’s handbag brolly and can of hot dog sausages just did not cut it to start off with but some trusty local stones soon did the trick. It’s odd that when bashing things with a rock how Stone Age you feel! I don’t suppose the grunting noises helped or well the grumbling when a misaimed rock flattered a finger or thumb.
Tent up we immediately started our journey into the local town to catch a bus to the concert. Communicating with the locals was difficult to start off with as (for only a joke I can guess) we were told to head to a street which only a local would know how to pronounce. The three beers before leaving helped though and we were soon en route to the concert. We knew when were near when the sound of the dance stage warming up was coming as clear as thunder. Bus luckily dropped us off with only a quick walk down a rather random road where there were only a few stranglers’s heading our way.
The atmosphere in queue was amazing. People were obviously there to have a great day and once we had found our queue the lines were building up. We were nervous about getting in as there had been some things to clear up with the tickets. Luckily we were sent in without a hitch and upon entering you could see the three stages. The dance stage had already kicked off as the crowds poured in and people were v-lining for the bars. James and I decided to both v-line for the bar and at the same time poster spot. The plan was before people piled in to find as many as we could. Progress overall though was slow with my phone being down from the sun light. Who would invent a phone with a back light but no features to help it work in the sun? Anyway the posters were dotted all over the shop. We decided to flow with the crowds and find the posters by wondering on a little once the crowd had stopped.
I was disappointed not to find an access point to e-mail back photos. Yet I noticed that others were on the case as some of the posters had started to gather markings like “K-K”. By mid day the beer had sunk in and we had very much passed the one fatal leak of the day. The performances of the day were off a calibre you would expect to pay through the nose for. The outside stage was one of favourite hanging spots as we had time to sit in the grass while just taking in the sights of the day. Before going to this day I had always watched them on the T.V and wished to be there. Being at the event was on the day hard to take in.
The one big performance of the day has to be grooveamada. I was not expecting that much off them but the performance was amazing and with the sun starting to go down the crowd was bouncing along to the music. They were energetic and quickly got the crowd stirred up . Beered up I attempted to dance and I am glad that has not been recorded for all to see!
Day Two (Sunday)
The morning did not start to well with me waking up to find that to my horror the front door of the tent had been stolen. I quickly awakened James to try and throw some light on the matter who pointed out that I was facing the wrong way. I blame the fact that the tent was on an angle and somebody function must assume a door to be at your feet. Anyway problem sorted James went to shower and I had the job of lighting the BBQ for breakfast and supplies. We decided to cook all the burgers that we had in an effort to stop us from buying food during to performance. Once James had returned I sleepily made my way to the shower room. James however forgot to warn me as of the seedy nature of the camp site toilets. The shower had been made so that the only way to get water out of it was to hold in a broken “push” button. The only reason for this was the very horribly positioned man hood sized hole that poked into the cubicle next door (I’m sure you all know the street name for it). I ran from there before anyone got chance to join!
We were driving in so we had more time to sit around which came in useful to plan our great assault. We decided to get there at the front of the queue and then run round to collect the posters before anyone else. We thought that all the hardcore concert people would still be hung over so we would beat them there and race round.
The plan worked well and we even got to follow round the guy putting up some more of the posters. We quickly texted them back to HQ but were informed that we needed a map to proceed. Being without an access point or any decent display on the phones we had to wing it by ear. Plus about midday people had started tearing down the posters. Which started to make finding anything very difficult. So much so that we missed to chance to go behind scenes and stop CQ.
We spent most of the day at the dance stage on grass in the sun. The sound system was enough to make your whole body tremble when lying. We enjoyed the rest after our drinking the night before but little did I know that in process I was turning into a lobster. Some comments as “I have a very red knee” and “My face feels really hot” should have been a clue. The police were very busy around us though removing quickly anyone they thought to be causing trouble. It seemed like there was more people there that day. Not that I really took notice how many were there previously.
The performances were again amazing with the sterophonics rocking the stage in world elite band style. They came on, no fuss and then just said thank you and walked off. Was really amazing and Mika did a performance of Sweet Dreams, which was very unlike him. We did see the odd other player running round with the map but it was not to I got home that I realised I should of asked to have a look.
A truly amazing two days which with the buzz of seeing other players was just breath taking. It was hard to explain to others about the game but we just had to mention One big Weekend and they were interested. Very enjoyable and without a doubt James and I have to say a big thank you to Sue for letting us go in her place.
Progress
posted by Bunnery on Sat 19th May, 07 at 15:15:01
Looks like our hard work is paying off - most of the map has been received and collated - have a look at the wiki here: MAP
Not much more to discover! Looking forward to reading Yodi's account of the exciting happenings on the ground (and finding out if he got me Mika's autograph!!)
Looks like there is another College connection - Silently Broken seems to be sending through most of the photos/map fragments from the event itself.
Wish you were there?
Last edited: Sat 19th May, 07 at 15:16:01
Online support
posted by Breadmower on Sat 19th May, 07 at 09:51:18
Those of us who couldn't make it to One Big Weekend have been given a mission to do - we need to work together with the people on site to piece together a map of the festival, so that they can find the kit that they need to disable.
Here's the deal: the festival-goers are looking for various symbols that will be hidden over the site. They need to take photos of the symbols and send them to Paul Denchfield, who'll put them up on his site. That's where we come in - we need to analyse the photos and group them together into sets. Each set will give us three keywords, which we need to enter into a page on the Project FIA site. As we enter the correct keywords, the map will be gradually revealed, and we'll be able to use it to guide our team at the festival to the right locations.
Vi's got a more detailed explanation on Violet Underground. OK guys - this is it. We need to stop Cyrus' neural override device before he can use it. Let's do it!
Now we're cutting it fine...
posted by Breadmower on Thu 17th May, 07 at 23:20:29
Bad news, I'm afraid. It looks like the "Frozen Indigo Angel" that we heard just after 12:00 was the primer (Paul's latest blog has a copy, in case you missed it). That means that our only chance to stop Cyrus' plan is to try to disable his transmitter equipment at One Big Weekend. I think that there'll have to be some tactical discussions over the next 36 hours, whilst we try to come up with a strategy.
Time differences?
posted by Breadmower on Thu 17th May, 07 at 12:19:02
The Mole's just made a suggestion: perhaps the time 11:45 is GMT, not BST, so it's actually going to happen at 12:45. That would but it just before the news...
Trigger words
posted by Breadmower on Thu 17th May, 07 at 12:11:03
I've been listening to Radio 1, but haven't heard anything that fits the description of the primer: "complex, custom sound, normally a few seconds long", however the trigger words "Frozen Indigo Angel" were just (like, two minutes ago) played during a song...
Request request
posted by Bunnery on Thu 17th May, 07 at 11:24:19
Have been trying to stop the signal. Am emailing Jo Whiley begging her to play a request for friends of mine - at EXACTLY 11.45am - as that is when Kurt and Violet are getting married! (I'm sure they'll forgive me - this is an emergency!!)
Am listening out for the request - let's hope someone manages to distract her so that the primer doesn't get broadcast at that crucial time.
Couldn't think of anything else!!
Last edited: Thu 17th May, 07 at 11:26:26
Stop the primer!
posted by Breadmower on Thu 17th May, 07 at 09:29:49
OK guys - like Bunnery's already said, our first objective is to try to stop the primer signal from being played on Radio 1 this morning at 11:45. Paul Denchfield is trying to organise everyone to call, email and fax the BBC to stop them from playing the primer. You can find all the details over on Paul's blog.
The next stage
posted by Bunnery on Wed 16th May, 07 at 18:53:10
Wow - well done yodi - that was very brave! We were holding our breath while you were making the rendezvous :-)
The account was very dramatic - as were the photos from the webcam. We are pleased that you got back safely with the necessary documentation to gain access to the Big Weekend.
As we can see from Violet's blog today, the next stage is crucial if thousands of Radio 1 fans are going to be saved from total mind control.
She gives some clues as to what to look out for, if the rest of us don't manage to stop it before it gets that far!
"If we don't manage to stop the primer, we can still stop the signal by disrupting just three of the five transmitters.
Also, Kurt and Helena Frye, the police detective who's helped us in the past, have picked up cross-world chatter suggesting that Cyrus will need help to set up the hardware at the Big Weekend. He's going to give instructions to his agents using a series of symbols at the festival; the symbols will be recognisable because they'll have the trigger words on them. By finding those symbols, we can find the transmitters. But, let's hope it doesn't get to that stage. If we stop the primer now, we can all rest a lot easier."
We'll be anxiously awaiting your next report.
God speed!
A meeting on mathews street
posted by yodi on Tue 15th May, 07 at 21:51:38
It was a typically mundane Monday when it all started. A message arrived but having recently finished talking to my partner I assumed it would be her. The vibrating cut through the silence causing a few others to flip their eyes from their screens for a moment. I picked up the phone and quickly opened the message in an attempt not to draw more attention.
“Yode – Are you free in liverpool tomorrow, I am unable to rock up there but thought you might try this www.silburngriggsmining.com/projectfia.”
Sleepily checking the link, I couldn’t believe it, a free pass to the BBC’s One Big WeekEnd. The catch? Well from then on I was hired as a Liverpool double agent to go in place of a member unable to make it. They had given up their very sort after tickets to let me go so I had to do this job right. My first task, to acquire the tickets from a member of the third power. I was to rendezvous with them on Mathew Street. Not an easy task for someone made privy to the fight to save earth on that very day. I read up a lot before leaving but the grapevine of info was more a loose mains pipe with the odd floating hint of what I might be meeting. I was comforted to know though that operatives would be on hand accessing a nearby webcam to keep an eye on me.
Leaving the flat I felt surprisingly nervous, not sure of exactly sure of what I was letting myself in for. I wondered if it would be subtle or if there would be a lot of people there. What if I didn’t see the guy? Casting these and others doubts to mind I travelled on. Luckily our flat was near to Mathew’s Street and soon the reassuring thumb of the clubs speakers warming up came to ear. Entering the top of the street I was relieved to see no crowds and only one or two or shifty looking people. I had to make a call to Nathan who was eagerly watching to camera on the way down the street as he was not immediately visible. As said the third power agent was on the street corner with hat and dark specs.
I stopped just in the camera angle and weighed up the situation. Not wanting to make the first move in case my quick read up had not prepared me for what was needed of me. It did not help that one member who approached was asked to check his spectacles, testacles, wallet and watch and then stand with his arms out.
Once the agent was free of other members I walked up and uttered my password hoping that a last minute fraudulent slip would not let me down at this key moment. I thought that maybe I should of read the messages Nathan had sent me once more. Thankfully the agent seemed unphased and proceeded to check his list. Not being in my name I nearly failed as when asked for her name I uttered the only thing I knew, their user name. The trick was to convince the agent that the known username I gave was the correct name. Saying it in a more stern manor worked and off I walked with guest list acceptance in hand.
Before I left I took a moment to take photo or two from a distance as not to alert attention to what we were doing. Which I will send to be uploaded tomorrow with my report. Mission one... Complete.
Now I wait for the next mission which seems currently to be gain entry to the event.
