It’s been a weekend filled with heat waves and hotter beats! Rocking the Daisies over whelmed Cloof Wine Estate with thousands of festival goers, keen to climb into summer and some great South African music. From the Main Stage came rock and pop, from the New World tent Balkan beats and the Red Bull electronic music tent presented every electronic genre you can think of this year!
This year’s pro’s included:
The Brutal Fruit DAISY DEN: WOW! I’ve never seen a festival bathroom like this! From showers, loos, cabaret styled mirrors, seats and sinks, not a single girl in the queue had a frown on her face. These facilitates were definitely well worth waiting for for all the dusty girls!
Ample BARS and Restaurants: I can’t quite count how many bars there were this year but it never took me longer than 5 minutes to get a drink. It also didn’t take me longer than 15 minutes to get food either, from the likes of Butlers Pizza, Knead Bakeries, Hudsons and Namakwaland Biltong, there was something for the peckish and the starving.
RED BULL TENT: 2010’s electronic tent was an inflatable bubble of fun, although it was awesome it threatened to fly away on the Sunday! This year’s structure was far more sturdy with great sound and exciting lighting show. Ventilation was a bit of a factor due to the dust created by enthused party animals but dust has never really been a factor at RTD before so I don’t think this could have been predicted per say.
The DAMSIDE BAR: This year there was a beach styled bar next to the dam. This meant party goers could sip motjitos and chill out in the dam, a much needed source of relief from the top twenty, low thirties degree temperatures!
CELL C REDBULL Phone Charging Station. This facility has been LONG overdue! So well done on the organisers keeping the RTD world connected. Next year, data signal please!
Con’s included:
TOILETS: The Daisy Den might have been a joy but the festival toilets were positioned really far away and the maintenance was poor. After attending Oppikoppi where the toilets were immaculate, literally cleaned after every patron, RTD fell extremely short. This includes running out of hand basin water to wash hands after using said revolting toilets.
BLOGGER TENT: This was a great idea from the organisers but I have yet to meet anyone who had enough signal to post anything substantial. (If I missed something, please comment so I can be the wiser!)
SHADE: Although this year’s festival seemed to have more chill out zones and places to explore, the usual shade cloth that shelters festival goers during the day at the main stage was no where to be seen this year. I really don’t feel that this is something to be compromised, with South African summers being as hot as they are and skin cancer being as dangerous, shade is vital for festival supporters.
VIP: Last year the VIP’s and media had their own entrance road and gate. This year all the parking was lumped together and one couldn’t camp next to one’s car. Plus there weren’t any VIP loos near the main stage as there had been previously. Also, only the artists on the main stage received comps, all the other artists had to buy tickets for their partners. If the organisers want to cut down on people capitalising on comps then they could request the ID numbers and names of the artist’s guests. This year the VIP wasn’t very VIP.
MAIN STAGE SOUND: The poor sound man on the main stage was working his butt off on Saturday night after various power issues. Both Civil Twilight and Band of Skulls were victims of power issues. Why does this always happen when it internationals are on?! Well done on all the hard work of the engineers, pity it had to happen at all.
As for the music, well there’s almost no point commenting because everyone has their specific taste but there was MORE than enough to satisfy every genre. I would, however, like to make special mention of Civil Twilight. I’m not very familiar with their music but they were completely captivating, professional and patient when they lost power on stage and I personally feel that they were 1000 X more entertaining than Band of Skulls. Check out clips from the weekend on the next posts.
Thanks to everyone involved in the festival, Rocking the Daisies has certainly put its stamp on South Africa’s festival summer!
Oppikoppi is for joburgers who buy tickets in advance so organisers know how many people to cater enough toilets for. Capetonians who buy at last minute make it though for festival producers planning I reckon.
Best weekend of my life!