Radio music festivals are a huge thing all around the world and here, regional stations are doing them beautifully. That being said, before this past weekend, the only one I had actually attended was 947’s Joburg Day. That all changed, however, after attending Jacaranda FM’s Jacaranda Day in association with BP.
Jacaranda FM, who won Station of the Year at the MTN Radio Awards this year, have a different audience and this gave me the opportunity to see acts I wouldn’t see anywhere else live on stage. The station knows exactly what they’re doing and had an absolutely amazing line-up. Not only that, EVERYONE seemed to be having the time of their lives at the festival. Also – a freaking car was even given away at the festival! How epic?
Jacaranda Day saw the likes of Kurt Darren, Juanita Du Plessis, Lloyd Cele, Bobby Van Jaarsveld, Die Heuwels Fantasties, Elvis Blue, Dewald Wasserfal and Theuns Jordaan live on one stage. My absolute favourite performance came from Juanita Du Plessis. You may not know this but she is the biggest selling artist in South Africa and it dawned on me that this is actually the first time I am seeing her live. She was a star! The way she had the crowd in the palm of her hands singing the songs they know and love was amazing to watch. I also love the way she (and Bobby Van Jaarsveld) added their music videos onto the big screens and the way it was perfectly synched to the track was incredible. She also brought her kids out to sing with her and literally blew me away.
My other favourite performances had to have come from Die Heuwels Fantasties and Bobby Van Jaarsveld. Die Heuwels put on a brilliant live performance and vocally, they shine when they sing live. I went absolutely crazy when they performed their single ‘Leja’ which has been my favourite song from them for ages. Bobby is a star on another level. The girls at Supersport Park went absolutely crazy for the dude. He also gave one brilliant performance and was on par with Juanita for the best performance of the day.
I love Afrikaans music and it’s fans. Firstly, unlike other festivals, these guys are here for the music. They were hooked on every performer on stage that day and gave them their undivided attention. Not only that, these guys stood in insanely long lines in the hopes of buying an album and having it signed by the singers as well as posing for a photograph. That loyalty is something amazing.
The only thing I didn’t agree with was the positioning of the stage. It was at an awkward corner of the field and when walking around there were many areas where I could not see the stage clearly at all. Also, it would have been a good idea to mark off an area in front of the stage so people won’t set up their picnic baskets too close. This resulted in many people crowding these guys and standing on all their picnic supplies. But anyway, I LOVED my first Jacaranda Day and I can’t wait for next year’s event!
Feel free to comment, share or tweet @ElBroide
Jacaranda sure knows what their audience wants, although I’ve never been to any of their music festivals I have done some of their other community things like Spring Walk etc and it was top notch. Glad you’ve experienced it so positively 🙂