Moving the massive Oppikoppi music festival to Fountains Valley in Pretoria, due to its growing size, certainly had its risks, but the weekend went by smoothly, with about 10Â 000 people travelling from all over the country for four days of the best music South Africa (and a few other countries) has to offer.
Some of the traditional festival atmosphere got lost in the process. There was no sense of travelling into the heart of the bushveld and camping out under the stars along with thousands of other music lovers who have nowhere to go and nothing to do but enjoy the festival.
In Pretoria, also because of the introduction of day passes, some of that temporary sense of community was lost. The jazz stage, for example, was much less atmospheric and intimate than the jazz stage on the hill at Oppikoppi; then again, this one was able to accommodate a much larger audience.
The music was as good as ever. Six stages operated most of the day and night to accommodate bands and musicians from many genres — rock, pop, hip-hop, jazz, folk, blues, punk, breakbeat, jungle and drum’n’bass, to name a few.
Impressive performances included Buscemi from Belgium’s entrancing trip-rock; Max Normal’s incredibly powerful hip-hop tour de force on the main stage; David Kramer’s energetic, intense show; Steve Newman’s nimble guitar-playing combined with Julia Kim’s violin magic; Not My Dog and Brasse vannie Kaap’s loud and proud sets; Delta Blue playing the lively blues to perfection; DJ Luke Vibert’s crafty breaks; Fédération Française de Fonck’s jump-up funk rock; and Citrus’s funky but soulful stylings on the acoustic stage.
Max Normal and Cape dance duo Krushed & Sorted will be travelling to the famous Pukkelpop festival in Belgium as part of the exchange programme between the two festivals that is now in its second year.
We have come to expect innovation from artists at Oppikoppi; something different concocted especially for the festival. Lucky Dube certainly did this by opening with chords from Meatloaf’s (I Would Do) Anything for Love. Paul Riekert (of Battery 9 fame) and Anton L’Amour’s acoustic set was delightful.
Koos Kombuis and Not My Dog, performing as Koos en die Honde, were atrocious, though, and not only because of technical difficulties — maybe it would help to practise together before performing together. Also less impressive were Perez’s somewhat formulaic rock — I expected something livelier from former Jimmy 12″ members.
The audience was a mix of Oppikoppi regulars and newcomers, mostly a relaxed bunch enjoying the music to the full and wholeheartedly supporting their favourites, even when the temperature dropped to what felt like Arctic levels at night. It’s a shame that so many young males found it necessary to become incapably and obnoxiously drunk, though.
Looking to the future, the festival can certainly build itself by adding even more genres to its already impressive mix. It’s not hard to keep the current fan base coming back for more — this much is obvious from the way most people enjoyed the festival.
A bit more kwaito and straight-laced house might attract a whole new crowd; so would trance.
But even if these things do not happen, it’s clear that Oppikoppi will only get even bigger from here.