Rocking the Daisies has become known as one of South Africa’s premier outdoor festivals – with the 9th edition being the largest yet. Taking place from 2 – 5 October on Cloof Wine Estate in Darling the festival was headlined by indie rock act MGMT alongside Rudimental, Crystal Fighters and The Presets who performed to over 20 000 people at the sold out event.
This time around the organisers opted for a different ticketing system. This involved the pre-registration of attendees with their full name and ID numbers on the online database to limit the transfer of tickets at inflated prices, and assisted in limiting the theft at the festival (this decreased the reported theft by 78% from the previous year). This was managed by ensuring every festival goer’s full name and ID number were printed on their wristband, then verifying this by identifying every single person as they went through an entrance. This was unfortunately the first time the system had been used and resulted in long queues of people standing in the blistering heat.
The new layout and increased festival grounds of five hectors helped with the growth of the event this year. However, people still managed to camp in a disorderly manner, by camping almost on top of your tent, or just a blatant lack of respect for their fellow human being.
Covering the music at an event of this scale can be very tricky, but I think I managed. With some of my favourite acts being Al Bairre, Shortstraw, Jeremy Loops and Taxi Violence, among others, performed fantastic sets and rocked the socks off everyone in proximity of the main stage.
The Crystal Fighters were not a band I was familiar with, but had some interesting upbeat music that just kept the crowd going and going. Sadly, MGMT were a very big let down for me and many others, but as some said, “they are producers, not performers”. Rudimental with their full band blew the crowd away with their high energy performance and lighting.
I managed to catch Grimehouse at the Electro Dome and got a few seconds of video out of it.
I thoroughly enjoyed the festival, although it may have been hot, crowded and sometimes unbearable I’m sure everyone else can agreed – we will be back.
Seed Experiences will look at raising the bar of the festival for its 10th birthday in 2015 with a focus on improvements to any logistical issues that came up this year.
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