SA Rocks

What. A. Party.

That’s all that I can really say about the incredibly well-organised event, Rocking the Gardens in JHB, Emmerentia this past weekend.

The bands were spot on time, every hour on the hour a new band started from 12:00 – 23:00. There was food, drink, eco-conscious causes, cancer causes, smoking stands, gift stores, VIP areas (Thanks Mango-OMC and Cath!) and tons, tons more.

This is without a doubt one of the best rock festivals that I have attended in a very, very long time. It might only have been one day, but let me tell you that I made it worth while staying for the entire event.

The highlights in terms of musical performances were:

aKing

– without a doubt aKing is the leading live band in the country right now. You may not agree with me, but I cannot see how that would be possible. I have yet to be disappointed by this phenomenal South African group. Their stage bravado is epic, their command of lyrical brilliance is sublime and their musical prowess is just astounding.

Just Jinger

– an oldie but what a goodie. They played the headlining spot at 22:00 on Saturday evening which I believe should’ve/would’ve been reserved for aKing had they not had to leave to play another gig in Potch.

Gang of Instrumentals

– this group is without a doubt one of the tightest, happening acts in the South Africa. They got a crowd filled with rock-lovers to jump up and down to more hip-hop/rap based tunes and were brilliant all the way through.

Overall this is an event that I will most definitely go back to next year. There was not a single problem or issue. No overly drunk morons, no irritatingly tall people blocking our line of sight, no parking trouble, no lack of food, booze or drink, no wanting for anything.

I will go so far as to say that I think that Rocking the Gardens will very soon overtake Joburg day as the rock event of the year. Easy.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Yes it is that lovely time of year again. When the grass turns to a deep shade of green, the sky rolls over to a luminous blue and the clouds move along just enough to provide with comfortable amounts of shade.

This all means that it’s the perfect time for Rocking The Daisies and Rocking The Gardens to descend upon us and blow our minds.

It’s Summertime, in a nutshell. I am normally a Wintertime person but who can deny that the cooler things definitely happen in Summer.

So let’s cut to the chase.

Rocking the Gardens

is taking place at Emmerentia Dam in JHB on October 3rd, 2009.

The lineup is as follows:

Black Hotels
Ashtray Electric
340ml
aKING
Tidal Waves
Freshly Ground
Bed on Bricks
Just Jinjer

Brilliant. Now on to

Rocking the Daisies

The Lineup is sick –

Sunday
10:00 The Little Kings
11:00 Simon van Gend
12:00 Son of a Thousand Blues
13:00 340ml
14:00 Bed on Bricks

There is a Red Bull Studio and a Lemon Tree Theatre this year and RTD is always eco-friendly and rocking conscious.

This year at RTD there will be some very kick-ass, old school with a nu-twist, Photo Booths present at the event. Sponsored by The Grid. Make sure to pop in to the booth, get your photo snapped with your insane mates and post them to your various profiles, albums, social networks or wherever.

As per usual there is nothing left unturned at The Daisies event, Join The Grid Group (www.thegrid.co.za/rtd/home on your phone browser), follow them on Twitter, hit the Facebook event and so be sure to get your rock out.

Popularity: 9% [?]

At least it was declared a monument according to the organisers. But let’s be honest, who could possibly argue?

Klaus Bauer over at Zoopy did an absolutely sterling job of his coverage of Oppikoppi this year. If you can believe it, I actually watched a 6 minute video online, maybe we aren’t the 30second generation after all?

I love the fact that everyone shares a common understanding of why they attend the event and it is very simple: Music, boose, music and a couple of drinks. Simple, effective and jovial fun.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Let’s be honest, anyone who is over the age of 18, living in South Africa and has never tasted a Klippies and Coke has not lived. I mean that.

It’s my drink of choice and it is often looked down upon by the alleged upmarketers in Sandton. But I don’t care. I learned to love it while studying in Grahamstown and never looked back.

Now there is an entire festival dedicated to Brandy. We love Brandy.

The details:

When: 20 – 22 May 2009
Where: Sandton Sun

I am excited about this event and am going to do my best to attend. For more information you can visit sabrandy.co.za.

For something a bit different I discovered that wine routes are not the the only alcoholic routes in SA:

Popularity: 5% [?]

The Western Cape is abuzz this week and weekend with things to do. But I wanted to focus on the Cape Town Big Band Jazz Festival that starts on May 21st and ends on May 23rd.

From the CTBBJF (hehehe) website:

FOUNDED IN 1999 by the Late Dennis Barr

The Festival:

* The Festival is a community outreach project in support of music education in big band jazz for school and college students.

Proceeds from the Festival go towards a scholarship in the jazz studies programme at SA College of Music, sponsorship to the Beau Soleil Music for Africa Trust as well as the sponsorship of a music teacher at Manenberg High School for their Steelband Project, donations to participating bands and other music initiatives.

Musical instruments have been donated to Beau Soleil Africa Trust, Athlone Music Academy, York Road Primary School, Lansdowne, as well as Eluxolweni Primary School, Khayelitsha.

* provides an opportunity for young musicians to display their talents to a knowledgeable and appreciative audience at a prestigious event. And to assess their performance by comparison with the other bands in a non-competitive environment.
* encourages young musicians, presently at a primary and secondary level, to develop their talents through further education at tertiary level, leading to a career in music.
* assists in widening young people’s participation in playing a style of music familiar to their culture across the community.
* reflects a world-wide resurgence in popularity of the big band swinging sound of exponents such as, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Gerry Bosman and so on.
* promotes awareness of the big band jazz style, gaining young fans and reviving fond memories of the swing era for many older fans.
* attracts growing support from the business and public community.
* associated with and supported by the S.A. College of Music.

This seems to be a family orientated event with many bands playing and lots going on. Here’s the breakdown of who’s playing:

Participating Bands…

Thursday 21 May

* Alexander Sinton Jazz Band
* Little Giants
* Wynberg Boys’ Jazz Band
* Beau Soleil Music Centre
* Heathfield High Jazz Band
* Pinelands Jazz Band
* Rondebosch Boys’ High Jazz Band

Friday 22 May

* Stellenbosch Youth Jazz Band
* Alexander Road High Big Band (PE)
* Bergvliet High Jazz Band
* Bishops Jazz Band
* Rustenburg Girls’ Jazz Band
* Bergvliet J2
* Alumni Big Band

Saturday 23 May

* Sans Souci Jazz Cats
* The S.A. College Junior School Jazz Band
* Westerford High Big Band
* The S.A. College High School Junior Jazz Band
* The S.A College High School Senior Jazz Band
* UCT Big Band

Saturday 23 May

During the afternoon will see our Chisa Community Outreach Project. This is a special performance to an invited audience of learners interested in music.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Disclaimer: This is going to be an exceptionally geek-orientated blog post but those of you who are interested in the new world happening right would be mad to not read on!

South Africa has been chosen as one of the nations taking part in a world wide fundraiser called a Twestival. The event is basically run from organisation orchestrated on Twitter, the micro-blogging platform.

Here is what the main Twestival website has to say:

Tweet. Meet. Give.

On 12 February 2009 175+ cities around the world will be hosting Twestivals which bring together Twitter communities for an evening of fun and to raise money and awareness for charity: water.

Johannesburg and Cape Town are the two local venues taking part in the global event. Other African destinations include Lagos and Lusaka.

The JHB event will be held at Cappello’s in Sandton on Feb 12th at 19:00. All other events around the world will also take place on Feb 12th.

The charity that we are trying to raise money for and assist in their quest is Charity: Water
From the website: “Most of us have never really been thirsty. We’ve never had to leave our houses and walk 5 miles to fetch water. We simply turn on the tap, and water comes out. Clean. Yet more than 1.1 billion people on the planet don’t have clean water.
It’s hard to imagine what a billion people looks like really, but one in six might be easier. One in six people in our world don’t have access to the most basic of human needs. Something we can’t imagine going 12 hours without.
Here, we’d like to introduce you to a few of those billion people. They are very real, and they need our help. They didn’t choose to be born into a village where the only source of water is a polluted swamp. And we didn’t choose to be born in a country where even the homeless have access to clean water and a toilet.”

I think that this is a very valuable charity to be supporting and even if you don’t, it might be nice for you to get out and meet some of the people who tweet non-stop and it might be nice for some tweeters to get out into the real world and meet some non-tweeters. (I can completely understand how absolutely crazy this entire blog post sounds to those who don’t make use of the word “Tweet” in everyday conversation.)

This is a worthy cause couple with a different sort of event that just might turn out to be fun and help others. So when tickets go on sale, get them!

Popularity: 6% [?]

I’ve been emailed the final list of participating acts for the OppiKoppi WildCard festival in August.

Here it is:

Popularity: 5% [?]