^General Information

~What is MS all about?

The |mekka & symposium is a demo-scene party that is organized annually
at Easter. Here, about 1000 young Multimedia artists gather for four
days to meet similar-minded people, exchange ideas and participate in
competitions in which individual people and groups show off their
talent with regards to a traditional form of electronic art called
|Demos.

Although it might seem so art first glance, the |MS is no LAN party
where network game playing would be the primary occupation. People
playing Quake or Half-Life on our events are considered non-creative,
if not destructive, by most of our "serious" visitors. If you "just"
want to play games, think about going to our Planet Insomnia
(www.planet-insomnia.de) parties instead, you'll have much more fun
since you'll also be finding much more enemies to play against...

~Location, Date, Entrance Fee

The party place is located in Fallingbostel (www.fallingbostel.de).
Situated between Hamburg and Hannover, this is the only town in
Northern Germany that offers a hall suitable for at least 1000
visitors, while not being too expensive. At this place the |MS
parties have been taking place since 1997, so we really know its
infrastructure and limits quite well, too. The party starts on |Good
Friday (21st April, 2000) at 12:00 CET and ends on |Easter Monday
(24th April, 2000) at 12:00 CET. The address is:





Heidmarkhalle \




An der Heidmarkhalle 1 \




D-29683 Fallingbostel \




GERMANY \

The entrance fee amounts to |70 DM (35 Euro). We don't accept
currencies other than DM. We don't have single-day visitor tickets.
Girls and Mat/Ozone get in for free. There is no table reservation, and
no possibility of paying in advance. Money which is left is spent on
the repair of damages to the hall and on competition prizes (in this
very order, so please behave :D). If you bring your own computer
equipment (this does not cost extra, of course), bring your own power
connectors!

~Travel Information

If you're going to come by car, you can reach Fallingbostel through
the highway A7 - watch out for the "Fallingbostel" announcement. We
have a map (in english or german, included in the .ZIP file) which
guides you from the highway exit to the party place.

When coming by train, you have to use some major train to either
Hamburg or Hannover (whichever is nearer to you), and change for
Fallingbostel there (train schedules are available from the Deutsche
Bahn info page, bahn.hafas.de). Once you've arrived in Fallingbostel,
you can make use of the free |24h bus shuttle service we will set up
just like last year. But you |must contact us (see contacts section)
in advance, so that you will be picked up (please tell about number of
people and time of arrival). If you're coming without equipment, you
can also take the walk (half an hour); watch out for the "Bahnhof" /
"Railroad Station" in the center of our map.

This year there are again some guys organizing bus trips from various
countries to the |MS; some of them may have a free place left for you!
If you are interested in information about those bus trips, please take
a look at the MS2000 homepage (see Contacts section), we do not print it
here because of likely updates.

~Features

|1. Lots of competitions for Amiga, PC and C64 - and some platform-independent
ones such as a Graphics competition and various music competitions. We
don't have competitions for Atari and Acorn systems; feel free to
participate in the Wild compo with productions for these and even other
machines.

|2. Competitions presented on a big screen sized 6x4 sqm, including
powerful sound equipment - yes, the sound will be loud if you are
sitting in the first table row. No, we will not turn the volume down.
Choose your fate in advance by sitting down at the front of the hall if
you want loud sound (note that you don't need your own stereo to make even
more noise), or by taking place at the remote side of the 
hall if you are in need of a quiet place (note that some guy 
next to you will be pissed if you turn up your own stereo 
too much). Also, some wax to put into your ears when you 
want to sleep will really come in handy.

|3. Place for about 1200 visitors plus equipment; enough 
power for everyone - but: please do not bring equipment 
you don't really need. This has two advantages: You can't 
lose it, and it can't bring the power down (see below for 
more words on the subject of electricity)

|4. A warm sleeping hall - Just like on |ms2k-1,
comfortably small and warm. Of course you can sleep in the 
main hall as well. If you want to, you can also stay at the 
local youth hostel, which is located about half a kilometer 
from the party place (note that you probably need a member 
card):





Jugendherberge Fallingbostel \




DJH Landesverband Hannover e.V. \




Liethweg 1 \




29683 Fallingbostel \




Phone: +49 5162 2274 \