Considering how massive the line-up was, I couldn’t cover each and every artist but I did get to cover as much as possible. I also started from day 2, which was Friday and also did day 3 (Saturday) and 4 (Sunday) which happened to work out well but boy I was tired come Monday.
Day 2 – I navigated between Great Dane and Kitcheners, staying within Braamfontein but did feel I was missing out on AND Club and Carfax. Brammfontein was really packed when I arrived, it reminded me of 2012 Braamfontein. I thought it would be insanely full within Great Dane and Kitcheners but both were at 80% capacity, which seemed very strategic because it allowed movement inside the venues. Both sides were sealed off from everyone else even though people did try get through the fence but they looked stupid for trying to do that. Day 2 really kicked things into overdrive and if I didn’t have a good time then, I would be lying because day 2 was so amazing, DJ C-Live, DJ Sox and Ms Cosmo could also be spotted withing the crowds having a good time.
Day 3 – We all headed down to the Sheds for this, still staying within Johannesburg though. I’d honestly never been there but heard about it. There were 2 stages, separated by live performances and DJs. Driving around it, I immediately got a sense of what to expect but soon as I stepped in, I was wrong, it was livelier than I had imagined. The stages were bigger and were able to handle everyone, I mean everyone. So many people came out to see the live acts. I also got a chance to talk to Trancemicsoul and he highlighted that he is working on some stuff with Red Bull but wouldn’t reveal too much, listen to the interview below. I couldn’t get a chance to talk to Jullian Gomes but he did say his debut album is dropping 30th September, so that’s 1 to lookout for.
Day 4 – We all headed out of Johannesburg to Soweto for the final leg. The line-up was well balanced which created room for anyone to attend and those that didn’t, had FOMO for days. 2 stages were also utilised but we weren’t divided between the stages, we moved gradually moved inside when it got dark. The biggest question is how I managed to get through Sunday. Day 4, shut it down in style and if you looked around, you would have spotted Just Mo DJ within the crowds also.
Overall, in 2013, Red Bull Music Academy ran something really similar to this, RBMA Bass Camp, if I’m not wrong and that was really successful, as I was able to attend 1 of the events and then that was it, we never got any love again, so when they announced the Weekender would be hitting South Africa, the chances of me not attending were really slim, I mean really slim. I did feel the workshops weren’t highlighted as much and I would’ve loved to do the Sci-Bono 1 on Friday but if we don’t get another RBMA Weekender next year, it won’t be fair because we enjoyed our first experience so much. A question I have is, how will it be different next year though, this year pretty much set the standard and they used so many local artists that next year, they’ll have to work twice as hard to match this years.
You can checkout some of the pictures here for the Weekender.