Festival's Gold 3

Have you noticed this year's official t-shirt? On the back it says 'Festivalens Gull'. We have had a chat with some of the people who are involved and working to make it a festival. The sanitation group can be found at Kirketorget. They plaster, sew and breathe life into you if necessary. 

Sanitetsgruppa, an active group of nurses and doctors who are happy to spend their free time on duty to patch you up, comfort you, stitch you up, or simply save your life, if necessary. We followed them on a shift at Kirketorget, and met up for the equipment review an hour before the concert started. 

"We gradually built up a small field hospital on Kirketorget," says group leader Hilde Wedde. She shows different emergency medical equipment, blood sugar machines, neck collars, oxygen, plasters, pumps for various purposes and where in the 'hospital' everything related to the respiratory system is located. Gloves, earplugs, green plastic bags, stretchers, emergency medical bags and other equipment are readily available, and before the shift starts there is a review of how the stretchers work and communications equipment, both for the emergency network and for internal communications. Doctors and nurses are visibly distributed around the area. Hilde says that they also go round among the audience to follow what is happening.

Hilde, started the Sanitetsgruppa after a Bob Hund concert in 2001 where the band demanded a doctor present at the concert. This year, the group has approximately 30 members. Some have been involved from the beginning and others are new this year. The group is a popular group at the festival, and they are constantly visited by someone who needs a Band-Aid, colleagues who have time off, the police or Laagendalsposten's journalists who need to sit down for a few minutes to complete a news story. 

Paul says that he has been part of the group for many years and shows up year after year because "being an official is both social and enjoyable". Guro, who is a medical student, is participating for the first time. And after a couple of shifts, she is completely ready to sit for a 10-year anniversary interview in 2029, to work in the Sanitetsgruppa gives more taste. Guro; we two have a deal! For those of you who are wondering, before we left they mostly used plasters to plaster chafing wounds, and a couple of slightly more acute incidents where those who needed help got it then and there, and were able to return happily to the concert - it's good that we have this gang!

Text: Anna Moxnes / Photo: Thomas Hegna and Birgit Fostervold