Each year Rocking the Daisies gets bigger and bigger with more party animals looking for a safe, fun, musical weekend away. This means more brands jump on board in order to gain exposure and promote the green festival concept. Along with new brands come new party concepts and creative ideas. Along with the usual favourites, here are some of the new features that I spotted this year at 2012’s Rocking the Daisies festival.
CACTUS JACK POP UP COUNTERS:
This year Cactus Jack tequila was on board. They had pop up counters throughout the festival with 3 flavours: bubblegum, honey and original. The original is really delicious because it tastes like melted frozen margaritas. They taste really good but are not nearly as strong as regular tequila. They were sold for R15 at the pop up counters and R20 at the main bars.
CONVERSE TRUCK AND BAR:
I remember the Daisy Den for the ladies last year but not the Converse truck and bar. It’s a truck that sells Converse Merchandise and this year it was parked in the general camping and had a bar on the roof.
THE SWAP SHOP:
I saw this concept on Twitter and knew I had to stop by to check it out. The Swap Shop was in the Green Village at Rocking the Daisies and allowed festival goers to bring an item and swop it for another. At the end of the festival they gave away everything that was left over in exchange for a Tweet. Clever festival concept and secondary marketing concept.
TRASH BACK:
Whilst milling around the festival we came across the trashback concept. This is to promote the Rocking the Daisies green philosophy and having respect for the festival landscape. If you’re able to fill up one cup of cigarette stompies then SAB will give you a free beer. Not a bad idea considering there are stompies thrown all over the show!
THE SAVANNA LEMON TREE:
This comedy tent isn’t anything new but this year it was much bigger and with the weather being a little temperamental, it was a great place for those to rest in the shade or hide from the rain.
HOT ON A ROLL:
I’ve been eyeing this restaurant in Mowbray for the last few months but have not managed to eat there as of yet. This year, they had a stall at Rocking the Daisies with their gourmet versions of hotdogs. Since Butlers pizza is my favourite any time of day, I once again didn’t manage to try them out!
LIGHT BALLOONS:
From the time I was sitting in the queue to get in on Friday night, I could see a really long sparkly thing but couldn’t figure out what it was. As I got closer, I saw it was a giant string of blue and white balloons with lights floating high in the sky. This was one of my favourite things, it was so pretty and I wish next year would have 10 of them! As I made my way back to the camping area it had floated off! I don’t know if someone did that on purpose or by accident. I felt sorry to see it go but it looked awesome in the night sky anyway. I just hope a confused duck didn’t fly into it or an aeroplane!
LAYOUT:
Oppikoppi REALLY needs to take a note out of Rocking the Daisies festival lay out. It’s always really easy to navigate ones way around the festival, whether coming from the various camping sections to food to the dance floors.
BARS:
I definitely think the Rocking the Daisies bars needed to be MUCH bigger this year. The Redbull stage’s bar was bigger than last year but it could easily be the same size as the main stage bar as that was over crowded too. They can even include one down near the Lemon Tree tent as they were always full and no one really wants to queue at a festival for half an hour for drinks.
TOILET WATER:
There were also plenty of toilet banks but they had no running water by 7pm on Saturday night! Will literally thousands of people using them throughout the weekend, that’s just gross. I don’t think wanting to wash my hands after using porter potties is too much to ask.
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