The live streams from the auditorium are now up, and can be found here using VLC.
If you are viewing from outside the ship, a Flash player will show the stream in the full story.

The latest release of The Gathering's very own newspaper, TheNewsGathering, is now up for grabs!

This issue have articles about the opening show. chillout, the forum, the info:desk and more.

We need to break some records, so everyone, download stuff, browse YouTube in High Def, download some new Linux distros!

Can't get that 3D effect to look like the one in your favorite demo? Are you working on a tune, but can't get that beefy bassline you are looking for? Do you need tips for getting the lighting just right in your 3D render?

The qualifying rounds for the Trackmania Nations compo will begin at 15:00. Please use your Partyticket handle as your ingame nick.

Join the ASUS graphics card design competition.

The best looking design will be chosen by an ASUS representative.

A member of the highly impressive G-Series notebook, the ASUS G71G is designet specifically for gaming enthusiast. On The Gathering 2009 you will be able to try out the best games on the best gaming notebook in ASUS booth. Welcome to play Crysis Warhead, Tom Clancy's HAWX, Left 4 Dead, Burnout Paradise and Mirror's Edge. 

The Gathering's very own newspaper, TheNewsGathering, is now up for grabs!

This issue have articles about contests, fun facts, the check-in line and much more.

Thursday 9th of April, the game crew will have a meeting for the teamleaders from teams that will compete in Counter-Strike 1.6 and DotA. There will also be compos in WC3, Quake 3 and Trackmania Nations. Information about the Xbox-compos will be announced 12.00 the same day.

There will be a Guinness world record attemp in the game Racedriver Grid, and there will be 24hour-race. If you want to set a record, visit the game booth to sign up and game! The deadline is 01:00 thursday 9th of April, and the record attemp will begin tonight - so hurry up!

Hello there all gamers. It is very important that all contestants sings up for the game competitions before the deadline. That's why we now have made a "how-to" for signups, so that you can sign up yourself or your team at the right time. The deadline for stage 1 and 2 signup is tonight at 23:00 (Wednesday 8.4.09/TG Day 1)

Because of the impressive specifications and a unique motherboard and cooling design, the W90Vp is aldready known to the market as one of the very fastest computers available. Come to the ASUS booth at The Gathering to experience it by yourselves! 

Compete in the R.O.G (Republic of Gamers) Shootout in Counter-Strike 1.6, and win a custom made extreme gaming Desktop - value 24 500 NOK.  

It is important to keep an eye on your belongings while you are attending The Gathering. At arrival and departure, many people carry much equipment in and out of the Viking ship, making life easy for thieves.

It is raining, and several of you participants has been wet. We recommend you to switch into dry clothes before getting cold.If you are feeling cold - take a shower before switching clothes. This will prevent you from being sick, and you will feel great!

After a couple of hours waiting outside in the rain, the doors to The Gathering opened for the hundreds of computer nerds waiting outside. The Viking ship is now being filled up with computers, excited geeks and big speakers(!).

Were you planning to be the first in line? You're too late. Fredrik, Mikkel, Kenneth and Fredrik have been waiting since Sunday.

We strongly recommend that you update Windows and protect it from viruses and spyware. Read through this list before you arrive TG09!

Most weather forecasts are reporting bad weather on Wednesday.

The emergency exits are marked on the map with colored arrows, showing the easiest emergency route according from the row you are sitting.Please read the entire article.

The Norwegian technology newspaper Digi.no has published a video interview with Tech:Net chief Daniel Husand and Cisco Norway employee Merete Asak. In the interview they talk about the network infrastructure on The Gathering and the amount of traffic generated during the party.

The webcam stream will now be switched off. This is not an error, so please don't report this to us :-)

It will be NOT back online before the party starts...

However, the tech crew might put up replays of earlier recorded footage if enough people request it.

Last years VAT demand unveiled quite an engagement amongst the participants of The Gathering. It spawned massive protests against the demand and the comprehensive media coverage made the Department of Finance pass a hastened exemption for The Gathering in the VAT case. Three of the persons who fronted the case of a VAT exemption has now sent their greetings by video to all participants and volunteers.

Remember to bring your swim shorts to The Gathering this year. Friday is the day for nerd swim. The stores are closed thursday and friday.

Overclocking is the Formula 1 race of the computer industry. There is no practical use for it, it is dangerous and there is always something that goes wrong. But when it works, it goes fast - really fast!

Zoooomg! We are getting reports about aliens occupying our parking lot. The aliens have arrived in at least three cars: one green, one white, and one which color we can not determine.

Thursday at 01 AM there will be a film premiere of the Norwegian documentary film "Exil" on the big screen at The Gathering. The movie has a focus on online role playing games, and the effect it has on peoples lives, good and bad.

Members of the management team of The Gathering and other key personnel are relocating to "Vikingskipet" in the next couple of days. As we will be quite busy when we arrive, there are some changes to how you can reach us.

This easter, we will put bunnies and egg painting aside. The Gathering 09 has been themed and named «Fire & Ice», and to a greater extent than ever, the theme will affect the whole event.

The deadline for Crew for a day application is getting closer by the hour. If you want to apply, send a mail to cfad@gathering.org!

Webcams from the Vikingskip are on-line!

The first edition of our in-house news magazine, The NewsGathering, has just been released!

All participants under the age of 16 need to bring a signed statement from their parent or guardian allowing them to participate at the event.

QPAD will bring their new mousepad with the TG09 logo and ensure it is the perfect choice for you.

The prizes for the game competitions are now announced.

https://archive.gathering.org/tg09/en/game/prizes/

Guinness World Records will be present at The Gathering 2009. In this connection, it is attempted to set nine new records during the event. LeMans, overclocking, musical chairs and nerd swim are among those record attempts.

April 4, at 11:59pm CET, seating will close, and you will no longer be able so change your seats.

The Hardcore Programming compo case has now been announced.

As most of you probably know by now: The news item about prohibiting food in the hall was an April Fools' joke. However, the threat from the fire brigade and the health authorities is quite real.

If you are travelling by car, please follow the directions given by security to the parking lot entrance farthest from the arena.

The VAT battle is over, but The Gathering is still in grave danger. Both the fire brigade and the health authorities have now grown tired of seeing the ever increasing amounts of garbage in the hall. The amount of garbage the past few years has both blocked escape routes between the seat rows and caused a significant health hazard. We are therefore forced to prohibit all food between the seat rows.

For safety reasons the security crew will evaluate all shelves at TG09.

Partyshop are among the stores selling locks at The Gathering.

To prevent dishonest souls in stealing your equipment, it might be a good idea to lock it to your seat somehow.

This year no laser pointers will be allowed at TG, due to flagrant misuse at previous events.

Would you like to do something creative at The Gathering, but need some helpful hints to get you going? The mentors are there for you!

Torill Elvira Mortensen, a game researcher at Volda College, will be visiting The Gathering to see how YOU organize your seat!

The Gathering is proud to announce that QuadV will be announcing the games on Stage this year. QuadV has been leading in E-sport annoucing the past few years and been to all the major events in the world. They will bring their best commentators to The Gathering 2009.

The task assignment for the Themed Graphical Design compo is out now. Get started now, deadline is Thursday 09/04/2009 at 10:00AM.

Hello all you networking geeks out there! We now provide some technical details on the network at TG09!

Planning to make some food yourself during The Gathering? Fear not, we've got just what you need.

Tech:Net has started a new Tech Blog. Check it out at http://technet.gathering.org.

During the next couple of days, PTN will send out the PTN cards. Remember to bring your card with you! This will make check-in a lot faster and easier.

As always, you can apply for a temporary position in the crew -- first come, first serve.

The internet connection at TG09 will be a 5Gbps fiberoptic link provided by BaneTele!

The final deadline is monday 30th March. If you want to set a record for the Guinness World Record - register today! This year Guinness World Records will be present at The Gathering. Their goal is to register new records both for the regular book and for a separate book for computer games!

If you are refunding any tickets, make sure you do so within Sunday 22 March 12:00 CET (noon - not midnight!). After that time Partyticket (PTN) will no longer accept any refunds.

To be able to refund your ticket you must remove the user and seater from the ticket first. After PTN has stopped accepting refunds, ticket sales outside PTN are tolerated, as long as you play by the rules. We also have some friendly advice for you.

Same procedure as last year: Visitor tickets will be available on Thursday, Friday and Saturday between 10:00 and 20:00. These tickets allow you to stay in the hall until 07:30 the next morning.

There are far too many PTN accounts with invalid information such as fake names, addresses etc. Having such invalid information will result in serious consequences when arriving at TG.

Our crew will validate your address and other information when you are checking in. If the information is found to be invalid you will be rejected from the check-in queue.

This year we have a creative area, with 80 seats. For information about how to get seated in this area, read the entire article

Do you want to write for gathering.org? Info:Content are looking for a journalist for gathering.org and The News Gathering. If you want to contribute, apply today at http://wannabe.gathering.org!

Gullstikka will be held at Rockefeller in Oslo, Thursday March 5th. Representatives from The Gathering will hand out an award!

First Hotel Victoria offers all attenders a special price during The Gathering 2009.

The norwegian documentary about illegal file sharing in Norway has received a great deal of attention the past year. 

The first launch will take place in Vikingskipet the 10th of April. There will be more screenings during The Gathering. The first screening will also feature a debate. Participants of the debate will be announced.

"Urospredere" focuses on illegal files haring in Norway, and has interviewed director Harald Zwart, minister of culture and church affairs Trond Giske, leader of IFPI Marte Thorsby and lawyer Espen Tøndel to name a few. 

The seating will begin the 1st of March, at 8pm CET, for groups of 30 or more. We've made a simple map where we've shown which areas who are especially cold or noisy.

PLAY! Symphony is the worlds largest concert with music from our history's biggest console games, and is arranged in Norway for the second time. The concert offers music from the top titles such as World of Warcraft, Halo, Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, Guild Wars, Metal Gear Solid, Battlefield and many more.

Previous years the opening shows included a range of performers from rope artists to Norwegian politicians. This year, game music performed by orchestra and fuel bombs are in focus by the arrangement team, who promise the best opening show ever at The Gathering.

We have received some information from NSB (Norwegian railway company) and if you are travelling to The Gathering by train to or from Oslo, you should read this.

The official event radio on The Gathering will be Radio 3 Norway. Last year was a success and they will work hard to make this year even better.

This years logo was made by Allan Tangedal, and can now be downloaded from ftp.gathering.org.

The creative competitions for The Gathering 2009 are now announced. See the full list here: compos. Time to get started on your contributions!

UPDATE Feb 4, 14:39: The issue is resolved and it is now possible to pay by using a credit or debet card :-)

It is currently not possible to pay using credit or debit cards at Partyticket.net. A subcontractor of Paynet is having problems, but they're working on it now. Until the problem has been resolved, credit transfer / online banking is the only working method of payment. Since you have access to the webshop for 72 hours, you can wait until tomorrow, and see if the problem has been resolved then. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

The game competitions for TG09 are now ready. This year we want to spread the games over multiple platforms in addition to our computer based selection of games we will also have two console games. 

This is to give all kinds of players a wider choice of games. 

Ticket sale

Tickets will be put on sale Tuesday 3rd of February 19:00 CET, and you can buy them on partyticket.net . Up until this date, you can sign up for the lottery that will give you a random spot in the queue for the webshop. Your spot in the queue is not determined until the 3rd of February.

The KANDU board is pleased to announce that it is currrently looking for suppliers of gigabit network equipment. The goal is to provide gigabit network connectivity to all participants within 2010.

The invitation for TG09 is ready. It's called Raiders of the lost art and is made by Outracks, Nazareth, Portal Process og Kvasigen.

The Gathering is offering two different types of tickets; one included membership in KANDU and one without. What is different? KANDU explains why you should join KANDU!