Words: Florence Züger (@flow_zkid)
Photos: Simon Garcia (@mons_gardil) & Serge Bertschy (@sergebertschy)
Haters will say another last Beast Feast has been ruined by rain. We say, no one can handle water as well as us. Bold statement you reckon? Well, you should ask the 12,000 people rave next to us. They drowned while we were dancing in the mud to Suicide Catdoors and Bodoh, while Kyle did the rainbow rail transfer cruising around the water in the deep end and while we had to switch to vodka cause all the beer was gone.
As usual, the fun starts way before the Beast Feast itself with painting our rough beauty and letting her shine in all her glory. This year’s theme was Garden Eden of Hell and so Muna and Toni created a whole sick ass concept of how to paint her. While the key elements of the Beast were painted red and decorated with black and gold thorns, the small bowl was covered in flesh eating plants and vibrant purple. In the middle there was of course the forbidden apple and also our beloved friend Fabian found his usual place of remembrance. The food was as always cooked with love by Serge and Stuchi with only the freshest herbs and in pots so big you could drown in them. And because the locals know during the Beast Feast skating can be tricky, we had our session in the afternoon. So in the sunshine Leni was showing off her front smith in the bowl and Nicolas was throwing out his back smith grinds with his usual ease and Italian style. Oula was doing what he’s doing best: showing his love for the Beast by ripping it apart with a solid lip-slide to top it off. Doro demonstrated her frontside slashers she just added to her long list of ticks and deflowered the new rainbow rail Serge made for the event. Even Luca put his skate pants on and stomped down some solid airs besides his back pain. The only one offering the Beast throughout the whole night some solid blood was Theyge who probably didn’t even notice it though and just kept grinding around the bowl like a fucking train. During the session it started raining a bit which didn’t bother us because of the big tent we put up over the bowl. Little did we know that a thunderstorm was coming our way.
This year’s Beast Feast had as always a solid live music line-up. Big thanks to the bands who played for free! And Sandy for setting them up! Someone however was not happy about the live music: Valentin. Valentin is a little rich boy from Zurich who happened to organise a rave on the same date and at the same place. Even though we told him that we are doing our party since 14 years and that we only have a few pallets with a rusty PA, Valentin was not happy, ratting us out to the property management. But even the lady from the management was smart enough to know that our set-up could never disturb this mega rave bullshit next door. The pat on little Valentin’s head was not enough though and until the big day, him and his label were whining around. In his words: they have superstars to look after!
So it is kind of funny and also very satisfying that not us, but the weather gods showed them the finger. While their public toilets and whole area were flooded by the thunderstorm, we pumped the water out of the skatepark twice. We may have used a few of their pallets to protect the grass from getting muddy, but first come first serve, right. While their customers seem to be cut from the same cloth, asking for the money back because a thunder storm is obviously the organiser’s fault, we worked together as a team, holding our tents down. Props to Nicolas, Janick and Farsi for the big ass tent and blessing everyone with some topless muscle action in the rain to hold it down. After the storm is before the party, and even though everyone used the wet hours to drink, there was a sick skate session happening thanks to founding-father Büchi and Manu who tried their best to dry the bowl. These boys and girls made the Beast look like a chill mini ramp and whoever skated the Beast once, knows it is not! Especially local hero Noam showing up late and doing a back tail up the love seat with his backpack still on made the Beast look like a tame kitty.
The Beast was honored with the presence of people from all parts of Switzerland and also the Beast OGs showed up. Leo came to represent the Saint Jean crew and also drank for all of them, not before showing us his frontside feeble in the pocket though. And we even had a surprise visit from South Africa. Kyle ripped the Beast apart almost too easily and found out at the same time that skating in socks is his new superpower. Germany and Austria were well represented as well with a musical highlight from Børge aka Sorian Filberstein. I guess giving the people beer and some trashy Schlager helps to forget the rain. But Børge can not only swing his arm to the beat for 2 hours straight, he can also backside nosepick yank the extension and make it look easy. The last brave ones to skate the slippery bowl were Doro and Yasi from the Vipers crew which definitely was a highlight, as they were otherwise running around and making everything work. Obviously a feast like this can’t happen without all the people chipping in their time and effort and, like at the building sessions, it is just beautiful to see what can be created with team effort. So next to all the rad people who showed up despite the rain, big up for everyone making another Beast Feast possible, not minding the weather or angry rich boys.
As we are water specialists now we thought about offering our (very expensive) services to Valentin for the next time. Or to maybe just let him know that we had pumps. However, even though we are prepared as fuck and enjoy working with water, we actually like skating more. The last dry Beast Feast was in 2019 which is why we might start to listen to the weather guru from next door who is trying to tell us for years that there is an ever returning rain season in Switzerland. No matter what’s gonna happen though, the Beast Feast always takes place, always has our full and unwavering attention and always surprises with mad (and sometimes slippery) skate sessions. And who knows the next one might actually be the very last one.
Photos below by Serge Bertschi
For more Beast action, check out our report on Beast Fest 2023 or a video from way back in 2014 at Beast Feast IV