D-day

ROCKING THE DAISIES is not a music festival.

Like sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll, it’s a lifestyle choice.

Rocking The Daisies. It will never have the impact of Oppi, the darkness and daring of Ramfest or Up The Creek’s shade of blues. AfrikaBurns has an invisible carbon footprint that kicks RTD’s ecological efforts in its VIP pass, and RTD isn’t as pretty as the hippies at Splashy. But its remains a force to be reckoned with because it understands what the music industry doesn’t – LIFESTYLE consumerism.

At RTD, you don’t get the individuality of the dusty, the husky or the crusty that the aforementioned events offer; you get it all - camping, comedy, good food, shopping, swimming and - oh yes - big sound.

Safe as houses, Darling’s other mother was wise and wide enough in its 2009 musical selection to appeal to many. From aKING to The Little Kings, it drew lots of (mostly white, middle-class) South Africans. The stage was more colourful with Gazelle’s antics and Gang Of Instrumentals energy.

The Black Hotels are diplomatic about the demographics of the Daisies- “SA is a strange country, but the great thing about it is that nothing gets forced. It’s great that fests cross the line-ups. Integration happens naturally.” 10 000+ winter-pale faces proved the Black’s point. True to its socio-geography, the success of this festival is built on colour. The colour green, to be exact.

Green with envy

The earth is dying, and we are celebrating. That sound right? No, but that is right. We’ve entered the age of environmentally aware entertainment business– a simple branding and marketing angle that other fests must be kicking themselves for missing. You want media attention? Go green. You want social kudos? Go Greener. It’s no longer good enough to pick up your litter. Greenest is the entry level.

good advice beats good intentions

Clean Green

festivals have huge negative impact on their natural settings. Aligning itself with the concerns of global consciousness or those who just like to talk about it, RTD cleverly posit(ion)s itself as SA’s greenest fest. Yet last year’s 5km, 3-hour, bumper-to-bumper traffic queue with an exhaust emission to match was a bit of a choker for the festival’s carbon footprint. This year RTD was more organised. Ticket sales were tightly controlled, rubbish was recycled, renewable energy was pre-purchased, toilets were clean. But the PR schlock about “free water” @R40 /bottle?– should we expect the same spin doctoring from Complete Event’s incomplete green audit?

Jan demonstrates the pleasures of (almost) sustainable transport

Green eyes... or,red, really

At a festival, green is not always clean; but green is always grass. Andre Pienaar [Ashtray Electric] was eloquent on the topic of illegal substances. While people tripped their bits off out in the fields, he pointed out that “Festivals definitely have a stigma of excess. It’s not enough for people to get out of Cape Town; they want to get out of reality.” And into the trying pan?

tourists

Green, but learning

The Red Bull Radar competition was cool! Giving talent a fighting chance is cool! But using a web platform that prioritises a closed community of initial voters is NOT COOL. Potential competitors gave up participating because the host wasn’t comprehensive enough because the budget wasn’t big enough; not good enough, RTD. Everyone missed out.

Mean, green money- i mean- music machine

Music finds its feet in the mainstream; or rather, when it comes to making money in music, the mainstream is a shoe-in. To please many (but not all), the line-up included unknowns (like Thieve) and overgrowns (like Just Jinjer, the current favourite festival headliner). Everyone made an effort; not everyone was up to standard. But this festival offers music incredible exposure. That’s significant in a recession halving incomes.

In all, whether you go there for comedy song and dance, to get lost in tripping in tentburbia, to eat, drink and do very little, Rocking The Daisies is one-of-a-kind in the Western Cape. Just not my kind.

And what I’d like to know is which of its tree-hugging, cardboard-recycling, bubble-blowing boys or girls stole the bespoke daisies?

postcard for zinkplaat

Alette arrives unanounced at my door. the correct number four, this time. last time she went to the wrong house, and it ended very well with The Pretty Blue Guns being booked for Up The Creek. gherard at the other number four is a blues fan with his own custom built basement recording studio. he's also a friend of the Creek peeps. He listened to Cutting Heads, was well impressed, and made a call. Of course it's a good thing the Guns had already impressed the organisers somewhere else in the country, but it just goes to show that mistakes can make magic, sometimes... though not too many times, DPK; guns and daisies should be seen together, after all.

anyway, she hands me an advance of Zinkplaat's new album, and a self-addressed, stamped postcard to send back with thoughts, and watches as the cat pisses on my only copy of HAT. "you act just like Bertie with his puppy," she says as i yell about disprespect and what am i going to do that was my only copy. what did i do? i pressed play, obviously. there's not much that music can't fix (and what it can't fix, probably can't BE fixed). here's the postcard, sans snailmail...

Zinkplaat! ai - i'm back on avontoer listening to this. to your disadvantage, i recently saw veterans valiant swart and chris chameleon live, and liked and loved them respectively; to your advantage i just heard "oorlog frankenstein" (and nearly puked.) This album is somewhere inbetween, in a class of its own, though.

like a grown-up, it's more laid back and self-confident; like a young 'un, it's fresh and uncomplicated. It's seems you've finally got the balance, and you remain a blessing to your brothers and sisters. well done!

jezebel

p.s. it's like my childhood soundtrack... in Afrikaans!

what i didn't have space to add is these 3 thoughts:

• very crosby stills, nash and young.
• next album, suggest slightly more variation in the vocal melody and range - that well worn ascent and descent is going to exhaust our ears if they continue to invest in it with so much loyalty!
• and just how do they put sad and happy into every song? it makes joy poignant, and melancholy bright. Mooi besoedeling, indeed.