Complete Events and Rietvallei Wine Estate are proud to announce Opskop at Rietvallei over the Wacky Wine Weekend.

A unique, side-splitting, hip-swinging weekend with the cream of South African musical and comedy talent. Come join us for a one of a kind experience that you will not forget!

Opskop at Rietvallei takes place from the 4 - 5  June and aims to incorporate comedy, music, gourmet food and of course great wine.
Laugh till you cry with uproarious comedy sets and keep those feet tapping to groovy 80’s pop classics, roaring 20’s, rock n roll, jazz and Arno Carstens live on stage.

Confirmed Line Up 2010:

Friday, 4th June:

·         20:00- 21:00: Wine Barrel of Laughs featuring Dave Levinsohn, Rob van Vuuren (Twakkie from the Most Amazing Show) and Shimmi Isaacs

·         21:00- 22:00: Bed on Bricks

·         22:00- 1:00:DJ Rene the Frenchman

Saturday, 5th June:

·         18:00 – 20:00: Wine Barrel of Laughs with Melt Sieberhagen & Hannes Brumer AKA The Flying Dutchmen, Martin Evans, Dugald Pieterse, Piet Potgieter

·         20:00-21:00: Captain Stu

·         21:00-22:00: Arno Carstens

·         22:00 –0:00: Honey Bee

·         0:00 -02:00am: Circuswing

Indulge in some delicious wines from the Robertson area or tickle your taste buds with the great food on offer.  There is something for everyone, so put on your dancing shoes, bring your witty banter and join us for a fun-filled weekend of comedy and musical revelry.

Prices:
·         R60 Friday

·         R100 Saturday

·         R120 combined Friday and Saturday

Bookings online www.webtickets.co.za or at the door

NETFEST 2010

Netfest took place at the Kunskafee in Durbanville last Saturday night.  It was the launch of the new Netfest concept; which is to create awareness amounts the South African public of the awesome talents we have rocking out today.  Kega Management created the event and it was really fantastic.  This event was the debut show of the six shows that Netfest will be hosting throughout the Western Cape this year.

The venue was packed to the rims and the vibe was great.  We were treated to the sounds of 6 local bands which were:

• Llevado
• Far Horizon
• Tailor Hill
• Red Light in June
• The Undefind
• 12th Avenue

Every band was great and I was surprised by the amount of raw talent in SA at the moment, which sadly so many people are unaware of.  Each band also played their own music  which was really impressive. My favourites of the night were definitely The Undefind and 12th Avenue.  They really rocked out and had us all head banging.  I was also particularly impressed by the large amount of people that knew all the words to their songs, which again proved to me that there is indeed quite a big fan base.

Netfest will be hosting 5 more awesome events this year.

Look out for these events and check out the news at www.kegamanagement.com

- Hailey

Photography by Random Tam

Afrikadabra Full Moon Party took place at the majestic Castle of Good Hope.  A beautiful night of fantasy, colour and aesthetic delight blended with thumping psychedelic trance music as well as some dub-step and drum and bass earlier in the night to get the crowd going.

The venue was utterly magnificent.  We walked along the grand outside walls to get to the massive old entrance doors and already I had a feeling of being in an ancient and historical place, it was very exciting.  After walking through the courtyard, the party came into view.  Sparkling fairy lights in the trees, lumo decorations and psychedelic bass created a magical atmosphere.  That’s my kinda entrance I tell you.  The area really looked fantastic.  The outside area was situated around a huge pool of water and the inside dancefloor was placed on the otherside of the water feature, separated only by glass screens, so the view from the dancefloor was great too.

The DJ’s really played some great sets as well.  The line up consisted of some awesome South African talents, such as Regan, Broken Switch, Switchcache, Hyphen, Bio Rhythm and Gandalf, to mention a few.  One of the challenges for the guys was the acoustics of the dancefloor room.  The room proved difficult to try and get a great sound from but I know that the guys did the absolute best possible with what they had to work with.  Not to mention the stunning luminous psy décor that made the room look like a blend between the castle and avatar!

The turn up was also great.  Afrikadabra managed to sell out as only limited tickets were available.  There was a queue of angry people outside who desperately wanted to get in, but as the website announced, the tickets were limited and the early birds got the worms.  Another obstacle regarding the castle was that it had to close at 2am, which was rather sad as at this stage the party was in full throttle, but considering all this it was still well worth using such a magnificent venue and I think these things may have even added to the exclusivity of the event.

Afrikadabra was created by brand new Cape Town party and event throwers, Easy Company and it was actually their debut party, believe it or not!  I believe we have many fantastic parties to look forward to coming from this innovative and creative group.

All in all the night was a great success.  Between the stunning venue and awesome line up, as well as the trendy and energetic crowd, the vibe was magical and I’m looking forward to the next one.

- Hailey

Reigning from Newport Beach, California, Steve Aoki Dj, producer and owner of Dim Mak records graced Cape Town with his enormous presence at Assembly last Friday night. Aoki has collaborated with artists such as Bloody Beetroots, The Faints and Boys Noize, to mention a few. Steve is also involved with huge fashion names like Supra Footwear, KSUBI sunglasses and KR3W Apparel. He is a man of many talents and it’s great to have a big name like his hitting the SA music scene.

So Friday night finally came and off we went to get a fix of some electro madness. Battle Beyond the Stars opened and was followed by Lapse who played some new and old electro favourites. Next up was local duo Grave Danger, and the Skene brothers really threw it down and created a pumping dancefloor in preparation for Aoki.

When Aoki came on stage the place was already packed and amping for some more. Aoki’s set was great and kept the crowd alive, playing some crazy electro tracks which even included some hard rock style screaming which created an interesting blend of music. He also played his well known “In the House” track which proved to be very popular with the crowd. Haezer played the closing set and sure did end things off with a bang.

My only crit is that he screamed and sang over the lyrics to many of his songs, this is not the most impressive thing for me as I would have rather heard him completely live even it did not sound as good. Considering all the tickets sold out and it was a rather big event for the Cape Town electro scene, I would have preferred a more raw performance. Saying that though, he is a great performer and ran around the stage like crazy, shaking the railings and going all out so it was great to watch.

Other than that, the venue looked great. Brightly coloured electro décor was done by Décor Boy under the Colourbox company, and definitely set the scene. The crowd was also rocking and the place stayed packed til close. I had a fun night overall and hope to see some more international electro artists coming to SA as the scene is huge and waiting with open arms.

- Hailey

I once saw 2 BMX guys battling it out at a comp. They were outdoing each other trick for trick. A crowd gathered and people were afraid to cough because it looked like these guys were either gonna knock each other out or unleash some fury onto us spectators. It was that intense. And then, mid stall, the ramp literally collapsed. The one guy made it out pretty ok, the other landed with a bar between his legs. What a way to go right?  I’m a girl so I can only imagine, but from the looks on the guys faces in the crowd that day, that’s the kinda injury that’ll curb your enthusiasm.

Thankfully South African extreme sports are finally getting the representation they deserve with the Pro X event. Hopefully no more brave young men will have to suffer “balls on cruddy old ramp” tragedies again because the Pro X is a word class event for sure. You could see that no expense was spared to provide riders with the best facilities possible to do their thing on. It’s a brilliant platform for our local talent and let’s hope that it attracts the international and local recognition it deserves.

I, along with many others, had been waiting months for this thing to kick off. And we weren’t disappointed. The riders that made it to the final had to compete in a heat wave, which has gotta be tough. But we got to see some amazing tricks, airs and splendid SA extreme sports’ style.

Here are the winners:

BMX:

1: Malcolm Peters
2: Stuart Louden
3: Greg Illingworth

Trials:

1: Andrew Guess
2: Peter Haley
3: Reneir Du Plessis

Supercross (Biggest Whip):

1: Ryan Engelly
2: Dewald van der Berg
3: Jan Ryan

Words: Alana

Pics: Hailey

With the car loaded full of camping equipment, blankets, food and drinks, we set off to Nekkies early Saturday afternoon. We were lucky enough to arrive to our friend’s huge shady gazebo set up. And oh my did we need shade! It was a cooking 38 degrees without a breath of wind. We were chilling near the Vice Beach Party, which was on the river full of sun bathing rockers. People flocked to cool down and chill out in the water whilst listening to the Vice DJ’s pumping some funky beats.

We then headed up towards the main stage in time for The Monroes and Desmond and the Tutu’s. Taxi Violence, my personal favourite at the fest, got the crowd going crazy! Besides the ferocious metal monster with the chain saw thrashing around on stage, the band’s performance was super uplifting and really got everyone into the swing of things for the rest of the festival to come!

Having perched ourselves in a good spot under the trees we watched the next bands, Isocronous and Die Heuwels Fantasties, who I thought were good enough but perhaps should have been placed in an earlier time slot, maybe before Taxi Violence, as they were rather mellow.

Luckily, though, Lark was next and Inge sure did a great job of lifting the crowd again. When her theatrical and almost haunting voice started blasting through the gigantic rig, I think almost everyone got shivers down their spine. With a mix of classical music, hard rock and an almost burlesque touch, Lark proved why they were one of the headliners at Ram Fest once again.

Boo! was also awesome. Wearing his signature tight and bright pants, Chris Chameleon, rocked and shocked the audience with his extremely high notes that one can’t believe are actually coming from a dude, not to mention the fact that he plays the bass as well! After breaking up in 2004, it was a real treat to see Boo! rocking out again. As I’m sure most people will agree, I haven’t seen them in about 10 years and I was so impressed that they still have their magic.

By now the main stage area was absolutely packed, there was literally a sea of people from the bar to the stage to the stalls and beyond. It was now time for the main act, Pendulum. The UK/ Australian group are one of the most well know Drum n Bass acts on the planet and they sure threw it down. Pendulum slammed such bouncy, jump-around beats that they had the entire audience bouncing around like the grass was made of jelly. With crazy far-reaching lazers and killer beats Ram Fest was going off like never before. UK MC Ben “The Verse” Mount had endless energy that obviously resonated into everyone else. After the main Pendulum act, Ben also MC’d for Niskerone in the electro tent which was quite a sight to see; he was standing almost on the decks and shaking the speaker so hard that I was sure it was going to break at any minute.

And thats how ya do it brrra!

And so the night went, with everyone jamming in the electro tent until sunrise. Although we brought all our camping equipment, we were too excited to check out the party when we arrived and by 5 in the morning it was still in a pile under the gazebo. It was then sleeping in the car for us, I was plonked almost upright in the passengers seat but at the time it was unbelievably comfortable.

Comfortable until the Sunday sun came out an blasted us with a vengeance. Sunday was a total scorcher and so we all hid under the shade for most of the morning. Sad to miss out on The Rudis and 7^th Son, we packed up our unused campsite and headed back to Cape Town with a case of after-the-festival sadness but some amazing memories. Ram Fest IV was spectacular, much bigger and better than I expected, and I will definitely be back next year.

- Hailey

Cape Town’s newest burlesque theatrical experience brings you eye candy and ear brandy, not to mention a treat for the taste buds as well. Vaudeville is the hottest show in the mother city at the moment, incorporating both top South African and International acts, showcasing a vast variety of superb talent such as tap dancing, showgirls, acrobatics, vertical pole runners, a hula hoop fire act, B-boys as well as witty and wonderful singing and dancing. It features top performers such as Irit Noble, who compares the show, the To Do sisters, Olympic gymnasts and Jinx, Vaughn de Ville’s high energy Balkan band. Producers Will Hutton and Andrew Florenca of The Sunroom and art director Dirk Vervaeke, make up the creative brain behind Vaudeville.

On entering the theatre, one enters a world of fantasy spectacular. The 300-seat dinner theatre is lavishly decorated and the three course meal served throughout the show is delicious! If you have not Burlesqued up already then there is even a dress up shop where you can buy garments to fit right into the theme. After the show one can go up into the new Fez club and carry on with the night’s festivities!

This is a show I would definitely recommend everyone to see. From big groups of friends to a romantic dinner, it’s the perfect night out and it is only running until July 2010.

Tickets are R350 – R395 per person and this includes dinner, the show and entry to Fez after.

Bookings can be made at bookings@vaudeville.com

Check it out at www.vaudeville.co.za

The Southern Ink Exposure 2010 has come and gone and although it didn’t have as good a showing as previous years, it’s still the tumbleweed to our desert town of alternative events in Cape Town. From old faithfuls like Paul Booth and Bob Tyrell to new faces like the kids from Bluebird Tattoo studio in Sweden, it’s a weekend “propvol” ink, needles and bewilderingly talented artists.

Thankfully, there’s no need to get into the topic of tattoo stigma because it seems that’s all in the past. Whether it was the excess of grannies sporting stretched tramp stamps that did it or the fact that people started recognizing this all a respectable art form; everyone from your Grade 0 teacher can, will and might have something inked onto their skin. And I think it’s just grand that in this throw away society of ours, people are committing to something permanent. Sure you may hate the “Casper the Friendly Ghost“ you got when you were 18, but it represents a lot of who you were in that moment in time and that can’t be that bad?

So, if you were one of the people who had cash that late in the month and managed to get yourself tattooed, I salute you. If you think about it, you pretty much commissioned a one of a kind piece of art that you’ll carry around with you forever.

Here’s hoping next year brings the crowds, not to mention a better representation of our local alternative music scene. Next stop Ramfest, see you all in the moshpit.