Earthdance Cape Town 2011 Presents the following beat makers…

In my haste to praise Rocking the Daisies, I’ve forgotten to mention ANOTHER one of Cape Town’s biggest outdoor parties, Earthdance 2011. This is probably because it has previously been centered around psy-trance music, which isn’t one of my favourite styles of music, and thus is it not high on my priority list. In their defense, the festival has been expanding slowing but surely over the past few years.

Here in the Western Cape we are able to boast one of the most successful psy-trance scenes in the world. (I might not be in love with psy-trance but I am proudly Cape Townian!) Starting with outdoor parties such as Alien Safari, Vortex, Bear Trap, Free Range, from early spring, right up until Easter weekend, there is a big or small psy-trance party to be found somewhere in the province throughout summer. It seems that it’s a right of passage for most students to spend some time at trance parties because at one time, they were pretty much the only outdoor parties to be had. With the 1 day Coke fest, Ramfest and Rocking the Daisies being younger than 6 years, there weren’t many alternatives.

Since the inception of more festivals, Earthdance has moved with the times and incorporated other genres of music. 2010 saw a Homegrown stage hosted by Algorythm Recordings with the best drum n bass DJs playing through the night. Last year, an alternative electronic music stage also made an appearance with dozens of minimal, electro, dubstep, house, etc. DJs playing and this September 23 – 25th will be no different, only bigger and better!

The concept of Earthdance Global is that of love and charity. Dozens of parties are hosted all over the globe on a single night, in order to create awareness and charity, with each party offering 50% of its profits to charity. All festival goers around the globe simultaneously (this year at 1am in RSA) stop partying and join together to practice a Prayer for Peace. This is a moment to reflect on peace and humankind.

This year’s theme is “Celebrating the Forest” in alignment with the UN’s environmental agenda: 2011 International Year of Forests. Most psy-trance heads have grown to dislike Earthdance as it is one of the most commercial festivals, however, since it’s in the name of charity, their hippie philosophy also usually means that they’ll be attending and supporting the cause none-the-less.

I personally am more than happy to stay away from trance festivals during the summer, however, I do believe Earthdance should be more varied in order to gain more support for the purpose, joining together in peace, reflecting on the earth, our blessings and the future. If this means the hippies have to relinquish Nekkies for one weekend to ‘the other side (the normal side) ;), then so be it!

On that note, here’re the artists you can expect to see playing at Earthdance this September 24th 2011…