Curator Doug Aitken takes a varied ensemble of renowned artists and musicians from around the globe on a trip from New York City to San Francisco, from 6-28 September. Each of the ten stops  will be jazzed up with a top festival. For The Netherlands, rapper Sef and TV presenter Tess Milne got a ticket which allows themto join the trip and to report on what they see, taste, hear and experience. We will post regular updates of their train trip and we start off with the first 2 days.

DAY 1

The trip started off with a short walk through the Fulton Street Mall and a dinner party in New York City with a speech by Jonathan Kirby, head designer of Levi’s Menswear and the driving force behind Station to Station. Afterwards Sef and Tess went to party in New York with Dice The God, one of Sef’s friends. Sef: “This trip is all about strange combinations and unexpected encounters. The idea is to throw a bunch of creative persons on a train, mix it up and see what happens. A brilliant idea if you ask me.”

TESS’S DAY 2

After a good night’s sleep of about three hours I’m wide awake for day 2 of the trip. I look in the mirror, see no reason to shower and decide to get out into the streets with Sef. At 11 o’clock, hangover strikes. Ah man, I stink. Luckily we start drinking wine at 3 o’clock, so I’m completely myself at 6pm. Tonight is the official kick off party in Brooklyn and the view is so beautiful you could print picture postcards and easily charge €4 for each of them.

The first band to play is No Age. I’m completely into the music and jump on Sef’s back out of crazy enthusiasm. It turned out to be someone else’s back – painful. There are three tents on the location, all made by an artist. In one of these tents we meet Andrea, who travelled to New York all on her own just to hang out in this tent. The tent is as comfortable as a womb – I would have loved to live in there forever.

They say that sex is so amazing because it titillates all of the senses – this party did exactly that. It brought everything together: music, art, food and people. And to think this party is just the beginning of it all.

SEF’S DAY 2

No Hangover. Yousef: 1 – NY: 0. Today we had a bit more time to walk through the city. First we first did some sightseeing in Brooklyn (is the new Nets stadium owned by Jay Z or not? – I don’t know anymore) and later on we met up with some of my friends, near Bleecker Street.

They took us to a couple of cool shops and gave us some extra information such as: “Kanye West lives there, Moby there.” Moby’s house is much nicer than West’s, I assure you. We didn’t have a lot of time, because at a quarter past 6 we had to be at the bus which took us to the first real event of Station to Station. The location? Riverside Studios in Brooklyn: a big leady black film studio where an incredibly beautiful sunset welcomed us. #nofilter

I was super excited to find out what was about to happen, because a selection of the artists and musicians had already done a small performance on the train. A black college drum band started playing outside, then went indoor to give the baton to No Age, a rock band.

Some sort of cowboy did all this bizarre stuff with two whips and two super old rockers of The Suicides made incredibly bad music, but they were awesome to look at. More senior citizens should rock faux leather pants and white sunglasses!

There was video art, there were installations, hipsters and hotdogs. Perfect. I guess there are no rules when it comes to cross-pollination and surprises. The realisation that we were joining this trip truly came when we met Andrea, who left Washington on her own just to see an installation by Ernesto Neto. There was a tent with pink lights, a soft floor, and stalactites or stalagmites – who can remember the difference? A womb-like surrounding where people could lie next to each other.

When we told Andrea that we were on the train trip as well, which leaves from Pittsburgh on Sunday, I suddenly realised how weird it is to be part of this. I can’t wait for all of the random encounters and arty farty experiments which are bound to come next. Around 11pm, the party was a bit over, but there was an after in a rooftop bar and rooftop bars are awesome, especially in New York. The night was young, but luckily we had Dice The God. More clubs and even more wodka. I <3 NY.