Totallympics Open International Song Contest 2020

[dcro 10,210]

I am all for a Halloween themed draw. Even if the draw itself does not necessarily get held on the 31st.

[heywoodu 15,135]

6 hours ago, OlympicIRL said:

Unfortunately I won’t be available to conduct the live draw this weekend as I have to work 

Does anyone want to have a go at creating one? I can help out with some ideas if needed.

And just to clarify and maybe widen the options a little: it doesn't really matter much (for me) if it's Saturday at the specific time, it can be Friday as well or even Sunday morning or something (or later on the day although then I won't be able to do much).

[heywoodu 15,135]

Delegation location 6 - Garderen

Starting back in Apeldoorn, we travel down the road westwards and reach the town of Garderen, home to a little over two thousand people. It's a real fest, because nearly all of them are as famous as their neighbours: not at all. Like so many of these places on the Veluwe, it's old and in this case was already mentioned nearly a thousand years ago - which is not too special for a major city, but is old for a small town.

Garderen never really gained too much significance, it didn't help that a third of the town burned down in 1811: eight out of 25 houses. It does serve as sort of a central hub for a few smaller towns around, whose people generally work in or around Garderen. There's a mid-19th century windmill and there's a centuries old church, the fun in Garderen never ends! American cyclist Tejay van Garderen, nowadays mostly making sure the peloton has enough people in it, might have his roots here, although his father is from Amsterdam, so who knows.

 

There's even some light hills in the forests around Garderen

Leave Garderen by bike, mostly towards the north, and you'll find yourselves in the Speulderbos and Sprielderbos, two local and old forests that are combined together and originated somewhere during the last ice age. Cycling or walking through it is an interesting experience by itself, the shape of the trees makes the locals call the forest the 'dancing forest' and even though it might not be that special, it's just a really nice ride/walk.

 

Autumn in the forests near Garderen

As has been mentioned here before, one of the main reasons to go to Garderen is the Zandsculpturenfestival: the Sand Sculptures Festival. The president of the Dutch TOISC delegation used to think this was for old people only, but a visit proved to be very much worth it. The theme changes every year, builders and artists are brought in from all over the world and the result is a huge show where one can easily find themselves walking around for three or four hours enjoying the lifelike sand sculptures.

 

Operation Market Garden, but in sand sculptures

Last, but certainly not least, a reason for one of the delegations to be stationed in Garderen: in April 1919, the municipality raised a Serbian war monument. A big group of Serbian soldiers were stationed at a Dutch army camp nearby, 29 of them died due to the Spanish flu right after the First World War. Garderen gave them a monument to be remembered, and in 1938 the victims were brought together and transported to the mausoleum in Jindrichovice, where they were finally laid to rest. The monument in Garderen is still taken care of, meanwhile.

 

The Serbian monument in Garderen

 

Delegations in Garderen

 Serbia

 Bulgaria

Kazakhstan

China

[Agger 1,662]

I would have prefered giving the songs one last go, but no time... My votes have hereby been sent!

[Olympian1010 7,971]

After three listens I’ve managed to create a provisional top 12, but 21 songs are in contention for points. The quality of music is really high this year.

[mrv86 3,138]

Very hard decission, as every song I listened tonight deserved at least a point in my consideration, but had to made the second cut. 

 

However, I choose the ones that wll be in my voting template, and most heartbeaking, those who'll have to be reserves.

 

Still my top 5 is firm, but first place is not as safe as I believed.

[dcro 10,210]

Still 23/35?

[heywoodu 15,135]

8 minutes ago, dcro said:

Still 23/35?

No, but I have my Excel on my personal laptop instead of work laptop, so that'll be updated later today  

 

I see I have five unread messages (which I'll keep unread until I can immediately enter them in Excel), good chance there's five more countries added to the list.

[dcro 10,210]

5 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

No, but I have my Excel on my personal laptop instead of work laptop, so that'll be updated later today  

 

I see I have five unread messages (which I'll keep unread until I can immediately enter them in Excel), good chance there's five more countries added to the list.

I assume the Organizing Committee is rather skeptical about using cloud for such classified data? 

[heywoodu 15,135]

7 minutes ago, dcro said:

I assume the Organizing Committee is rather skeptical about using cloud for such classified data? 

Every night I print the current Excel sheet, delete it from my laptop with a full wipe of my harddisks and factory reset of my laptop and bring the printout to an undisclosed location in which it's kept safe in a triple-locked vault.