Lister

By Mathias Dam

Translated by Morten Winkler

With a hangover, black lips from bad wine in cartons and blurred sight I arrive at the morning meeting of the festival’s editorial staff. While the stories of the day are given out, I try with no luck to focus on the cup of warm water that my breakfast consists of. In an unguarded moment somebody has my name put down for the review of the Ferris wheel The green Wheel – and before I can protest, the meeting is over.

So I stagger, along with one of the photographers, towards the festival site while I try to figure out an excuse to escape my destiny.

5 minutes in hell

At the Ferris wheel we meet an enthusiastic girl with a stop watch, who explains that we have to bike for 5 minutes to earn a ride. The bike ride is apparently enough to run the amusement in a climate-friendly way, and it is high time to lower the greenhouse effect – at least locally as I am melting down right in the middle of the open space.

We desparately try to explain to the girl that we came as journalists who can skip the bike ride, but she refers us in a friendly but determined way to the bicycles. After half a minute’s death fight in the saddle we are sweating like pigs, and a bad atmosphere is building up. Then the girl with the stop watch comes over to us and tells us that we can start biking now.

Half way through the race I can no longer distinguish tears from beads of perspiration. Around us a group of boys are sitting, and they seem to be using more energy on poking at my headache with the bicycle bells than on contributing to a CO₂-neutral world.

”One minute to go,” the girl with the stop watch shouts while trying to coach us to bike faster. About 3 minutes later it occurs to me that the stop watch is not working at all, and we will only get off when a new team is ready to take over the bicycles.

10 seconds in heaven

I must be suffering a black-out, as I am suddenly on my way on board the Ferris wheel. And it’s actually good fun. At least as long as I do not remember that I suffer from fear of heights, and the photographer notices that there are huge rust spots on the engine. The rest of the ride is spent glazing at my shoes thinking about how not to throw up.

Facts

’The green Wheel’ is climate neutral and run by solar cells, fuel cells and exercise bikes. You have to bike for 5 minutes to earn a ride of 3 laps in the Ferris wheel.

The Ferris wheel is 30 metres tall and the installation has been provided by the Tuborg foundation.

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