Rocking the Daisies 2014

Saturday 05 October 2014

Rocking the Daisies managed to expand from its colossal 17,000-odd crowd last year to around 20,000 this past weekend. The weather was great and, as usual, there was plenty to see and do.

I may have gone for just one day (well, one and a half if you count the long wait in the queue to leave the fest on Sunday) but believe me when I say that one day was enough to leave my senses saturated and my body broken once I returned home.

Here are some shots from Saturday.

The ticketing system was different this year, and while I read a lot of complaints from Friday of people being stuck in 3 hour-long queues and a general sense of confusion and frustration of the whole ticket registering and transferring process, everything ran pretty smoothly when I arrived on Saturday morning.

I’m not mad about the idea of running around with our IDs around our wrists, but I understand the need for security/anti-fraud measures etc…It’s a tough one. At any rate, I did not envy the Daisies officials who had to deal with the new system and the impatient festival-goers when the gates first opened…

Layout-wise there were also some changes this year – for the better I think. The ‘rave cave’ was an intimidating structure into which I ventured only for The Presets, who were the big pull for me this year and probably my favourite act of Saturday.

Décor and vibe-wise though the Nu-World Beat Club (née Barn) won hands-down, though it was really hard to breathe in there! Faithful Cape Town favourites Mr. Cat & The Jackal and The Nomadic Orchestra put on great shows as usual, and Ottoman Slap and Los Tacos (neither of whom I’d seen before) were very entertaining too.

Over on the main stage the crowd swelled to an unimaginable size as the sun went down and the headliners started. Crystal Fighters were great fun to watch, I always enjoy shooting artists in nutty costumes, but I found MGMT super disappointing. I’m not a massive fan but I like a handful of songs from their first album. Their psychadelic visuals were fun but their stage presence, especially after the energetic Crystal Fighters, was pretty much non-existent. Weird, I’d’ve expected them to have been a lot more dynamic live but oh well.

Dynamism did come though with the appearance of Rudimental – super energetic and entertaining performance with loads of visual and vocal variation between the band members. I really enjoyed them and the crowd did too.

I was surprised the next morning at how many people weren’t sticking around for Sunday’s entertainment…though, as one of those who left early I can understand. Still, with such a massive crowd of attendees, even if 2000 people left early, I’m sure there were still plenty of revelers left to chill and enjoy the rest of the show.

As a side note – I really think someone at Daisies should sell earplugs – I stupidly forgot mine and so I made do with hastily DIYed toilet paper so wouldv’e appreciated being able to buy some more effective ones. Plus I always worry for the thousands running around with no ear protection – once your ears start ringing they never stop, someone really needs to tell the whippersnappers that…

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Photos also on Texx and the City over here

Rocking the Daisies | The Presets | Rudimental | Crystal Fighters