This year was my inaugural Rocking the Daisies, and what a year to pick – all (15 000 I think) festival tickets sold out meaning the place was packed, the weather was mild during the day and Bloc Party were headlining. I went up on Friday so unfortunately missed the campsite bands on Thursday night, but to be honest I don’t think I could’ve survived a third night in the cold…anyway Friday was action-packed, here’s what went down…

Our packed car arrived to a packed parking lot and an even more packed campsite at around 1pm. After being booted around 4 times we finally settled right at the backline, meaning we had to walk for a small eternity to get anywhere, but this only really became a problem when we stopped to think about it.

Somewhere after 3pm we drifted down to the main area where Beatenberg were wrapping up. I was sorry to have missed them, but it was great to see that the crowd’s demands for one more song were obliged in spite of the rigid festival time constraints.

Wandering around I became increasingly daunted by the size of the festival – the main area alone was huge and around the corner was the dam and the Mainstay Beach Bar (complete with beach sand, summery DJs and way too many bros for my liking) and further around the corner was the Pick ‘n Pay Green Village, Hemporium Stage and Capitec’s Swap Shop.

Over on the opposite side was the Red Bull Electro Stage, the Nu World Beat barn, the Savanna Comedy Tent, The Shnit Short Film Festival tent as well as other stands and stages, a formidable food court and loads of clothes and craft stands.

Shortstraw were loads of fun, though I missed most of their set too (comes with the territory of festivals, especially ones the size of RTD). I hope they play Cape Town again sometime soon…

I’d heard good things about The Brother Moves On (and so had everyone I’d spoken to about them prior to the set) so was curious to see them…honestly I’m not quite sure what to make of them. Their music is dark and interesting and they had this performance art aspect that was pretty unsettling…something different for sure.

The commendable souls who Walked the Daisies got some recognition on stage before Machineri saw in the sunset. They’re always cool; this time they had a new drummer (from the last time I’d seen them anyway) and, for a change, some bass courtesy of Mr Cat & The Jackal‘s JC Visser.

The night and the biting cold had settled in in time for The Sleepers. They’re long-time favourites of mine but unfortunately I didn’t stay for their whole set, judging by their opening numbers and track record I’m sure it was a cracker though.

I’d left the main stage early to check out Bateleur and the Nu World Beat Barn. The decor was fun and rather bizarre but it was so crowded I didn’t really get to see the band. They sounded cool though.

Back to the main stage for Iso (December Streets were sounding a little too uptempo, so I kept my distance). Having dropped the ‘chronous’ from their name, the band also seem to have gained a distinctly poppy twang…I’m not sure how I feel about it. I can say that their sudden dubstep crossover track really didn’t work for me.

MC Jon Savage was trying to get his catchphrase of ‘rock-a-doodle-doo’ to stick, but those things rarely work when they’re forced (instead, annoying repetitive screams of ‘Alan’ punctuated by the occasional ‘Steve’ somehow become the campsite mantra for the weekend). I felt bad for him, he was trying, but there were a lot of negative murmurs about him in the crowd…

Internationals/honourary locals KONGOS were clearly a crowd highlight of the night. Much as I always enjoy watching them I couldn’t stand the cold and sought refuge at the Mainstay Beach Bar. It was abandoned (apart from a guy asleep in a chair and some bar staff), sheltered and in earshot of the main stage – awesome. I instantly retracted the mild revulsion I’d felt towards it earlier in the day, it was a thing of beauty in the moonlight.

I’ve been meaning to see BEAST for a while now. They have a raw energy which is really cool (and befitting of their name), and the two basses are an interesting experiment (or gimmick, I can’t decide which). Another ‘super group’, they’re pretty much guaranteed to be good, and they were, but unfortunately the cold was too intense. I heard the second half of their set as I stumbled back into the dark, searching for my tent…

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Rocking the Daisies  |  BEAST  | KONGOS  |  Iso  |  Bateleur  |  The Sleepers
Macineri  |  The Brother Moves On |  Shortstraw  |  Beatenberg

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