After much moaning and groaning about the fact that it had gone from a 3-day festival of epicness to a 1-day, overly-priced festival there were still a large number of people who were not only excited for the event but who also paid the exorbitant price without batting an eyelash.
I must be honest I adore music with my entire being but had I not won a ticket (thanks Rolling Stone SA) there is no way in hell I would have handed over R350!!!
yeeessss there were 4 internationals and yeeeeessss there were many other local acts...but seriously that price is reeeediculous...and yet there were many people who most definitely did not win tickets.
enough grumbling, onto the important stuff. THE MUSIC. There was literally something for everybody that day...arriving in the 7th circle of hell heat I managed to catch the last 10 minutes of Das Kapital...fairly new to the electro scene (although one forgets this because he plays everywhere and he's brilliant) he had the crowd jamming hard even though it was pushing 35 degrees and it was the hottest hour of the day. once the sun had decided to chill just a little I ventured back to the electro stage for PH Phat's bouncing set filled with dirty bass and enough swearing to make a sailor blush! Sadly, due to unforeseen circumstances I missed one of the oldest, craziest punk madness around, the Hogs but rumour has it they, as usual, pulled off an incredible set.
As the sun continued to make it's cooling descent the excitement reached fever pitch, for in just 2 hours the international acts everybody had shelled their money out for would begin. but first, Hyphen and SFR decided to rip the electro floor apart as a pre warm-up act for Netsky...having played together for quite sometime now they are showing the Cape Town party scene how to mix and blend two fairly distinct sounds and make them work in perfect harmony. Because the main stage was running a good 30 minutes late I was able to catch the first half of drum 'n bass golden boy Niskerone's set...he has waaaaaay too much energy:0 but man, he's good. keeping an eye on the clock i hurried over to the main stage as Los Angeles natives AWOLNATION took to the stage. It always astounds me how slick these international bands are, it's almost as if their minds are linked to each other and they just know what they need to do next. I feel as though the AWOLNATION boys were tuned into my mind because I was getting antsy about missing Netsky's set because i wanted to hear the ever-popular 'Sail' the familiar intro began and the crowd went wild. having done a little jig i hurried back to the electro stage (really who needs gym when you have festivals) and who was just beginning the set of a life-time, Belgium wunderkind Netsky and magical MC Darrison. so began the craziest, mad-dancing 2 hours of my life. MC Darrison interacted with the crowd and kept them full of energy and Netsky put his head down and dropped some of the sickest beats ever witness on Cape Town soil. After that, a much needed dinner-break commenced with In Flames as background music. Haezer commandeered the electro stage for the non-metal heads and showed his international learning as well as his lilo boat crowd surfing talents.
once the excitement of 2 stages running simultaneously calmed down the whispers started. "what would Infected Mushroom do?" "Would it be 2 guys standing behind a turntable throwing out already heard beats?" the answer is a resounding NO! what did occur at 10:00pm on Sunday night was out of this world. 5 grown men climbed onto stage and entranced (excuse the pun) thousands of people for a solid two and a half hours. Just a little idea of hat went down they covered a Foo Fighters song (I'm sure you've heard of it...a little hit called Pretender)...wait covering is the wrong word...they transformed said song into a psy-trance song of wonderment.
and so ended 12 hours of extreme heat, crazy dancing and an incredibly well run, slick production. reasonably priced beer, enough fresh water provided and for once more then enough toilets...yes there were a few hiccoughs and yes there were some very poor people on Monday morning but after a full day of exceptional music none of that really seems to matter...does it=)
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