SA Music Blog

 

Last weekend was the much anticipated Rocking the Daisies music Festival. As last year, the festival was held at Cloof wine estate, Darling. Learning from the mistakes that were made last year, 2009’s festival was extremely well orchestrated with no build up of cars at the gate, no messy mud to trod through on your way to anywhere, cleaner toilets and well, just better organisation on absolutely every front.

 

Janitors were on duty throughout the festival to ensure a level of cleanliness is maintained with regards to the porta-loos. This included regular refilling of toilet rolls. This was done as most of the complaints received by the RTD team in the past were from women complaining about the state of the toilets. So well done there RTD. Washbox also offered the use of squeaky clean toilets and showers to festival goers at the small price of R50 for the duration of the festival. This was conveniently situated across from the VIP campsite.

 

Another big improvement was seen in the way the campsites were set out. Because of cars not being allowed onto the actual campsites, it was less cramped and also less muddy. Having no cars to act as noticeables as to where you were camped proved problematic when you found yourself lost in the middle (or corner) of the campsite at 3 in the morning and yes, this did happen to me…

 

As the organisers said in the press conference, everything was bigger and better than last year. The Lemon Tree theatre was one of my favourite additions although I did miss a few bands due to the addictive nature of the comedy shows.

 

The green initiative was taken even further this year by providing each festival goer with two plastic bags to dispose of their waste in: a green one for recyclables and a black one for non-recyclables. The greening initiative was audited by Grace Stead to check that what the RTD people promised were actually being done. The carbon footprint of the festival will also be calculated and trees will be planted to off set this.

 

The Cycle to Daisies initiative of last year led to the Walking the Daisies of 2009. About 25 people walked 60 km over two days to the festival. These green ambassadors received many goodies from sponsors as well as a free ticket. Although Samusicblog did not get a chance to partake this year we hope to be able to do so next year.

 

The Red Bull RADAR competition took place on Saturday and three new acts had the chance to show us what they could do. Big up to SheManLion, Jinx and Sean Hayz Band for putting up a great performance.

 

Except for the wind, the weather on Sunday and Bed on Bricks playing the last slot, the weekend was awesome. It’s going to be really hard for the organisers to beat this years festival, but good luck for next year and thanks a for having us again! See you guys next year!