Hi yall I'm back and as I promised to Zola, here comes my report.
Well, you might already know all the general informations about Way Out West/Göteborg, but anyway.....
The festival is located at Slottskogen (= Castle Forest), which is a Park in the midst of the city, just a 30 minutes walk or 10 minutes tram ride away from central station.
The Park is very nice and attractive throughout the year with many ponds, step hills and a 3,5km hiking loop. It is municipal driven, got a Zoo without any fees, where kids are allowed to pet pigs and goats and one can ride Gotland Ponys. Beside this there are many nice cafès and restaurants, a natural history museum and an observatory.
WOW started Thursday but I had to work and was only able to attend on Friday and Saturday. So I missed Florence + the Machine live but watched them via free live stream.
In opposite to Coachella where you can party all weekend 24/7 and even sleep on the festival grounds WOW got a curfew. The gates opened at noon. and closed at 01.00a.m. and there is no camping ground but a good hostel (it was sold out though). But the tourist office had special packages for travel + hotel + festival.
I was there with 3 of my cousins and 3 college friends (my maternal family is swedish, originally from Västervik/Småland, which is 275km/170miles south of Stockholm, just a stone's throw away from the village of Vimmerby where Astrid Lindgren's Emil/Michel of Lönneberga lived) and we stayed at the beautiful Clarison Post Hotel at Drottningtorget (= Queen's square) with a stunning rooftop outdoor pool.
The daily ticket was 950 SEK = 115,50 = 141,50US$ and the 3-day-ticket was 1895 SEK = 230,40 = 282,20 US$ - which is not a bargain but worth it because it worked also as voucher for Stay Out West (the citys rock clubs, nightclubs, churches, theaters and cultural centers showcased both breaking and more established acts as part of the festivals club concept).
These club thing was cool but the majority of clubs were pretty small, with a capacity for about only 300 people. We tried to see Ingrid and Chromatic a band from Portland/Oregon but didn't get in because it was tooo crowded. But we had some fun hanging out at the side walk in front of the club chatting with other WOWers.
Another difference to other festivals is the fact that one is only allowed to drink alcohol within one of the four bar areas. You don't see people standing in the crowds drinking or walking around with beer (but good swedish tap water as much as you like for free). So there are no folks totally waisted and bumped this happens afterwards in the clubs.
Even the ambiance in general is different compared to other festivals I've been to.
The audience is more relaxed and calm. They're dressed like hipsters and standing or sitting in small groups at the lawn listening to the music it's more like a picknick atmosphere.
No stage diving, no pogo dancing but very chilled, beautiful people.
Friday was my day!

At 13.00p.m. there was a pre-screening of Snabba Cash 2 - it was sold out, of course. We stopped by the cinema on our way to the park but it was so crowed that we didn't get a chance to see anything nor anyone.
All my favorite bands (beside Florence + the Machine) played throughout the day. It stared with the two lovely girls of First Aid Kid, then Wilco, Billy Brag, Feist, Blur and Bon Iver.
Between the gigs we'd hang out at a beer garden at one of the bar areas and it was my turn to get some drinks. So I went to the beer shack but there was a hose (like a green garden hose) laying in the grass and I stumbled upon it (not because I was drunken but because it was as green as the grass!) and havered into a guy (jeans, tee, sunglasses, black hat; tall + slender = average swede) standing at the shack counter in front of me. I apologized instantly but he was cool about it and said, exactly the same happened to him just a moment before but he wasn't as lucky as I've been because there was no one standing in front of him to softens his fall, so he havered into the counter which hurt him. I answered that I've been twice as lucky because he was standing there and it happened not on my way back so I didn't spill any drinks. We laughed about it and he went away. After I was back at my friends, they all went OMG! because it took a while that I'd realize that this guy was Joel Kinnaman epic facepalm.:shame:
And then we partied at Storan's Club with Zero Boys +John Maus and a new awesome band called Out Of Vogue. I really had a major blast!
Saturday was a bit low.
We were wiped out (well, yes that happens when one is not twenty-something anymore but at the end of her dirty thirties) and slept in and took it slow. We strolled from stage to stage, had some picknicks......well, to be correct I should say, we mostly laid on the lawn near the stages, listened to the music, had a nap or two and in the evening we enjoyed the rooftop pool + bar at our hotel.
This was my fifth WOW and the third in a row and I like the fact that WOW is not just a festival for Scandinavians only anymore. But more and more european fans are come up north. This year a german ferry line had a special offer, a overnight ride from Kiel/Germany to Göteborg plus a wild party on board, arriving Göteborg in the early morning, taking a sight seeing tour, attending the festival and taking the night ferry back home for just about 149,- (which is a real bargain).
On Sunday one of my cousins and me took the red eye flight to Stockholm and I'd stay with her 'till today. She lives on Södermalm, but at the north eastern part of the island (Stigberget), which is facing Djurgården (the amusement park Gröna Lund). It's about 1km/0.5mile away from the center where the Skarsgård family resides. We were out and about Söder the last two days but we weren't lucky to see any of them. But my cousins neighbor told us, that Stellan is in town and Alex isn't the only one with a South Stockholm t-shirt anymore but Bill is wearing one nowadays too.