I woke up round 5:30 on Saturday morning, or rather, I was woken by Jess, who was leaving early for a dancing competition and then returning again around lunchtime. I thought she was crazy, but was in awe of her dedication at the same time. These thoughts weren’t the main ones in my head as she left though, rather I was marveling at how the electro was still pumping, and how there were, undoubtedly, still people dancing to it. I went back to sleep, until around 6:30, when I was woken by Mikhaila, returning from a long night.

I went out for a little while, long enough to see and appreciate the sunrise and blissful temperature outside. It was going to be another scorcher, best sleep in the cool for as long as possible…

Some hours later, the sun was beating down on the tent and it was time to get up. By the time I wandered down to the main stage, Stepdog were about to start. I had previously downloaded their free EP Amy After Dark and quite liked it, (Lola is particularly good) their live performance was good too.

14:00 The Great Apes – Never heard of or seen these guys before…they were pretty shouty and while I can’t say I particularly liked their music, I did find their ‘200% rock ‘n roll’ attitudes pretty entertaining…

While I waited for Tumi to set up, I spotted Jaco van der Merwe and Louis Minnaar, 2/3 of Bittereinder, chilling under a tree. I went to say hi and ended up chatting with them for quite a while, really nice guys. They were also waiting for Tumi and Peach/Yesterday’s Pupil, the last third of Bittereinder, who was going to be playing the drums.

On our way to the stage, we saw these carnival guys:

15:00 Tumi – My only prior exposure to Tumi had been on Bittereinder’s A tale of three cities so I was curious to hear his solo stuff. Aside from Peach on drums, he had some other guest musicians too, including Richard Brokensha from Isochronous/kidofdoom. At one point, they all left apart from Peach, who moved from the drums to a laptop. Whatever that track they then played was, it was incredible. A darker mood and more minimal melody – it was really short but just amazing, wish I knew what it was called…the whole set was great though, perfect for the afternoon timeslot, I’m just sorry there weren’t more people there to hear it.

Halfway through the set I was joined by Jess & Mikhaila. After it ended we wandered off in search of food, making a brief (and my only) visit to the metal tent on the way. Haggis and Bong were playing – another lot I’d never heard of. Jess, with her highland dancing connections, had and said we had to go check them out. I’m glad we did, they were nuts but pretty awesome!

But the metal tent was hot and stuffy – we made a break for the showers outside. Horribly environmentally unfriendly yes, but a total Godsend nonetheless.

We skipped Ree-burth (which seems just as well, I hear they turned up without their bassist/vocalist and the Sleepers’ bassist had to fill in) and Dance your on fire in favour of another swim in the river and a break by the tent.

18:00 The Sleepers – I love the Sleepers and have seen them live a few times over the last few years, so, like all their fans, I was sad to hear that their vocalist Simon Tamblyn had announced he’d be leaving and that Ramfest would be his penultimate performance with the band.

As usual, they didn’t disappoint and delivered an awesome set; sadly the crowd was still rather pitiful, but those that were there seemed really into it. A guy next to me (who had earlier showed me his AC/DC T-shirt that he was really proud of…) was rocking out really hard and kept saying ‘wow! They’re such awesome musicians!” The revelatory tone of his voice made me ask if he’d ever seen them before, “loads of times!” he said, “I used to play in a band with the drummer, I love these guys!”.  I suppose that’s the mark of a great band – no matter how often you’ve seen them, you’re still enthusiastic every time.

People started trickling through a bit more, and by the time Isochronous started, the crowd was looking pretty decently-sized. I’m always surprised to see how well some people dress at festivals – hair and makeup, pretty stockings and boots, the whole deal…seems to defeat the point of ‘camping’ a bit to me, but they make for prettier photo subjects…

19:00 Isochronous – Richard Brokensha returned with the rest of Isochronous for an awesome set. I’d heard a few of their songs beforehand, and know they have a great reputation, so was looking forward to seeing them live. They put on a great show, very theatrical and captivating to watch, great musicians too.

As their performance was coming to an end, I noticed some guys under the stage fiddling with fire extinguishers and PVC pipes…some seconds later they fired confetti out over the crowd. It was a somewhat grandiose move given the context of the dirty and disheveled masses, but one appreciated by all. It was hard not to get caught up in the magic of that moment, it almost made you forget where you were…

20:00 Van Coke Kartel – MC John Vlismas comes out on stage to greet the crowd, “I have a joke I’ve been wanting to tell” he announces, “three Afrikaners and a jew walk into a bar…it’s Van Coke Kartel!” And so it was – ever-entertaining and a blast to watch,  they were great and really got the crowd rocking hard.

21:15 Alkaline Trio – the first (and my preferred) of the two international headliners. I’m not a huge fan, but have a few songs from some years ago that I’ve always quite liked. Mercy Me was the only one of those songs that they played, the rest I’d never heard before. I wasn’t alone in lamenting a lack of older material, but everyone really seemed to enjoy them nonetheless.

Their crowd had been sizeable, but it seemed to shrink a bit afterwards. Looking around, it was clear the evening had already claimed a few victims…a few people lay passed out all over the place and one guy (who we christened ‘the moth man’) who was wearing a sheet, went through phases of lying in the fetal position and then standing up, dead still, before breaking into an insane dance and then falling over and curling up before moving to a new location and repeating the cycle…

22:45 Not My Dog – I felt bad for never having heard of these guys…Jess remembered them from back in the day and earlier, Jaco from Bittereinder said they were heros of his growing up. He also described them as ‘SA’s first real Rage Against The Machine-type band’, and hearing them, I’d say that’s an accurate description of their sound.

They were loads of fun, and while a lot of the younger Alkaline Trio/Funeral for a Friend fans hadn’t stuck around, there seemed to be a fair number of long-time fans in the crowd and a lot of first timers (myself included) who also really enjoyed them. Francois van Coke later came out to guest on a few tracks.

00:00 Funeral For A Friend – We didn’t stick around for too many songs, just long enough to appreciate their tattoos and Welsh accents.

On our way back to the tent, we stopped by the electro pyramid. It was pumping. With a crowd that almost rivaled the Welsh headliners next door…the emphasis on the electronic seems a bit strange to me at a rock festival, not that I don’t enjoy electronic music, it  just seemed that it had become a drawing card in itself. I just find it funny that while I’d spent a total of 10 minutes there, there were people who hadn’t moved from it all weekend…

Part of me wanted to stay longer, but I was finished. Back in the tent, I felt like my feet were singing a hymn to my sleeping bag when I finally freed them from my shoes. We could hear Funeral pretty well, well enough for me to hum along to the only tune of theirs I actually like, History, and to say ‘awww’ to what sounded like a really sincere (and heavily Welsh-accented) thank you to everyone for watching them.

As their cheering crowd died down, the volume of the electro pyramid seemed to amplify tenfold. I didn’t care, I was out in the next few minutes. Day 2 had been awesome, but it was time for it to end.

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Photos on Facebook over here.