{"id":17208,"date":"2015-08-22T13:55:52","date_gmt":"2015-08-22T11:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lauramccullagh.com\/blog\/?p=17208"},"modified":"2015-08-25T01:44:21","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T23:44:21","slug":"oppikoppi-21-fantastic-mr-vos-vos-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lauramccullagh.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/oppikoppi-21-fantastic-mr-vos-vos-day-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Oppikoppi 21: Fantastic Mr Vos Vos Day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
Friday
\n7 August
\n2015<\/div>\n

Now in its 21st year, Oppikoppi is legendary among South African music festivals. Its status and distance from Cape Town have always intimidated the hell out of me but attending has always been something I’d hoped to do; this year I got my chance, and it\u00a0really was everything everyone said it would be, and more.<\/p>\n

Here are some shots from Friday\/our first day at the festival.<\/p>\n

\"Bye<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Facing<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"Cortina<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The journey took a little longer than expected as our flight was delayed by 2 hours and we faced some afternoon traffic on the drive up, as well as some real “we’re not in Cape Town anymore” moments, including encountering several ‘drive-thru’ liquor stores which was a totally alien concept to us…<\/p>\n

\"Drive<\/a><\/p>\n

It was my first proper time up north from Cape Town so I was in full-on tourist mode and intrigued by everything…though I confess the scenery (or lack thereof) started to get mildly depressing after a while, as did the apparent\u00a0lack of any wildlife whatsoever.<\/p>\n

Northam farm really is in the middle of nowhere and we arrived at the festival in time to watch the sun set through the thorn trees and perpetual dust haze.<\/p>\n

\"Oppikoppi<\/p>\n

I must say, everyone’s accounts of the place had me bracing for some hulking dusty body-breaking behemoth of an event and, while this is an accurate description, it really wasn’t bad at all. Full disclosure, I was staying at Harambee, the fancypants campsite with an actual mattress and a plug point, so I didn’t rough it half as much as I could have, but even though the festival ground is gigantic and the lineup intimidating, the layout and structure of everything\u00a0was great and\u00a0walking around between the (6 official) stages was not only totally doable\u00a0but actually pretty relaxed.<\/p>\n\n\t\t