Intervention '01

Long before the festival Intervention '01 launched its active advertising campaign, rumours began circulating around Moscow about the arrival of legendary world DJs - Paul Oakenfold and Norman Cook. Some were immediately sceptical, saying it was merely a marketing ploy; others said that after the Britronica festival, held back in 1993, Oakenfold was unlikely to want to return here; while the most patient simply started waiting.
The agonising wait paid off: by 29 June all the announced festival participants were already in Moscow: Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim), Paul Oakenfold, Daniele Davioli, Darren Stokes, Stanton Warriors, Richard Scanty and the announced Russian DJs: Fonar, Groove, Kolya, Grad, Dan, Finist, Sanchez.
And so, at last, the long-awaited day arrived. The first thing that caught the eye upon entering the park was the small number of people who had come. The organisers had counted on more than 70,000 people attending the festival - in reality that figure barely crept past 5,000. Evidently the fairly high ticket price played its part here.
Next, the decoration of both stages was disappointing: the traditional blue tents with advertising banners - that was the entire decor.
It seemed that the only ones who could somehow embellish the blue tents were those 200 dancers the advertising had promised, but for some unclear reasons they were replaced by a team of breakers. I have nothing against breakdance, but dancing breaking to trance and big beat still strikes me as a rather strange occupation.
After a short stroll around the park grounds I discovered another stage, where a bike-trial show was being held to drum'n'bass music. An interesting spectacle, but I hadn't come here that day for bike trials.
Returning to the second stage, I noticed that after Fonar's set people had begun to disperse around the park, while those remaining on the dancefloor rather listlessly greeted the interventionist who had just stepped up to the decks - Richard Scanty. After he had played his fairly hard set, he was replaced by a talented but not very well-known DJ - Daniele Davioli. He decided to delight the crowd with a number of club hits, which for some reason were in short supply that day. Unnoticed, Paul Oakenfold himself appeared on stage and, to the ovations of the clubbers, began his set. His set thrilled many, but disappointed many too. Everyone knows that Oakey has a huge number of sets behind him, and the more advanced music lovers surely know of the existence of Paul's own label - "Perfecto". So these advanced music lovers were expecting from him the freshest, completely unknown records, and instead got something quite different. Well, all right - if there's no fresh material, then present the old worthily, treat the "spoilt" Moscow public to some old hits. Presenting the old worthily was something he likewise failed to do. In the middle of the set the track Solar Stone - Seven Cities was abruptly cut off and the already famous track PPK - Resurrection started playing. Understandably, Sergei Pimenov's (a member of the PPK project) joy knew no bounds. I must admit that no one on the dancefloor expected to hear this piece, and for many it came as a pleasant surprise. Suddenly a captivating girl appeared on stage, called up from the dancefloor, and after her came another 4 girls in no way inferior in looks to the first. These girls danced for 20-25 minutes, giving the male half of the dancefloor no chance to tear their eyes from the stage, and the interventionists too were not averse to admiring the Russian beauties.
Meanwhile, time was moving towards 22:30 (for those who don't know - the festival was supposed to end at exactly this time) and along the dancefloor a living wall was slowly forming from a squad of riot police. Oakey, it seemed, didn't understand at all why this needed to be done and was utterly bewildered. Hard as the organisers tried to buy time, they didn't manage it. The people on the dancefloor were in no hurry to disperse and waited a long while for a continuation that never came. They had to turn around and leave the park grounds.
Many of those who had come were displeased that Oakey's and Norman Cook's sets started at the same time and one had to make a choice.
On the whole the event was a success: all the announced DJs were present, and in my view that is the main thing. Another matter is that, because of various trifles, the festival looked rather stingy. The performance schedule was poorly arranged, Oakey delivered far from his best set, and there were other slip-ups too. But on the other hand, all those who were at Intervention '01 that day got to see two legendary world DJs with their own eyes, listen to good electronic music outside the nightclubs, and simply have a good summer's day in the company of their friends.