Rocking the Daisies, a manifested makeshift lifestyle that breathes like a whole new world.

With gravel in my shoes, a fully packed weekend bag and a folded, pop-up tent I made my way to the camp site where I hoisted what would be my home for the week-end. Not much of a camper girl myself, I felt immensely proud at my ability to adapt to being a field daisy for the next three days. For real.

Quirky brightly coloured flower display fixtures on the entrance, five floors, sale stands of all sorts of comfort amenities, brand activations with some of the slickest freebie hubs and rocking one of the pimpest food courts seen in the middle of nowhere; all of this made the wine farm in Darling a type of village all on its own. Or even better- should I be calling it Carling? Nice one SAB.

The space had transformed now into a little town all about festivity that boasted a reception of a little more than ten thousand willing and eager music fans, countless journalists and photographers, the aspiring artists and the ‘i-came-cos-all-my-friends-did-fan’.

Party people, music lovers, attention seekers and eager getaway fiends filled up every nook and cranny of the escape created to remind us that there is possibly a little more to what we call life than just our jobs and peak-time traffic.

The Friday night line up at the Red Bull Live Stage tent flirted some of the most deep, sexy and grooving electronic music in SA.

C.9ine’s live act and electric guitar playing guitarist/vocalist whipped up a whole other flavour of dance floor frenzy that many acts promise to have, but these guys really did. With their signature style of Afro Deep House, they took us across the world with rhythms from throughout Africa, South America and Brazil. The result: wildly swinging arms and happy, mad swaying hips.

James Copeland’s split DJ personality brought out the funk and new world swing dance sensation that flowed perfectly after C.9ine and carried us into the jazzy, throbbing beats of Joburg’s Kid Fonque that kept us delighted and superbly entertained when a saxophonist jumped up on stage and started playing along to his mix, once again proving how live music combined in DJ sets really sets apart your set when done correctly.

Monique Pascall, the queen of Underground Techno in SA was placed so perfectly to play at eleven pm, taking our broken in ears and non-stop moving bodies into a ready and needed, slightly darker, deeper and oh so grooving tempo and feel that only real Techno can bring. Her ability to read her crowd and fantastic track selection took all the ‘ravers’ (yes, and that includes me) to levels of awesome yes please we are happy you came and finally playing!

On Saturday afternoon The Mainstay Beach Bar down at the water complete with white, fluffy beach sand drew many sun-kissed half naked bodies to its shore. Mike Kennedy brought us some sexy minimal tunes to fill out the vibe. Dipping us into a zone of Cape Town sea side partying that’s reminiscent of just exactly how we get down.

I was compelled to stroll over in the absolute body lazy heat to the main stage that was sponsored by Ray-Ban sunglasses. Here I found that they were happily handing out free sunnies to crowd monkeys who were willing, wasted and eager enough for a great story when they got home to get up on stage and make fun-party-fools of themselves. Yep, we love those!

Tumi and the Volume were up at just after five and we chilled up in the Fish Eagle bar area – another random ‘VIP’ section that had an awesome shaded view of the main stage. The white shirted Tumi stood in the blazing heat, sang, rapped and slow moved his arms while his band played. A good delivery is what he brought forth despite the sun soaking he took while so clearly doing his best to remain focused on his performance.

The sun set not long after and we took the trek back to our campsites to rejuvenate and freshen up for the Saturday night festivities.

Audiophile 021 up at the hour of seven pm too the flow of the Red Bull Live Stage into the long awaited and very necessary Bass procession. Working that awesome sound rig to the start of max potential with his brand of Glitch, bit-driven Dubstep and heavily drum and synth laden Techno. Delicious.

SFR vs Hyphen, yet another good idea DJ combo when up on the decks, followed after with sounds and riddims of Drum and Bass, Dubstep, Glitch, Electro and Crack House, ripping through the tent and stomachs’ of all them happy Bass Fiends. Belly full.

P.H.fat spun up next and for the proceeding forty five minutes brought out the full force impact of their version of once again Bass heavy and certifiably sexy funky Electro Rap. With high energy and crowd pumping antics they managed to boost the excitement levels of even some of the newer Saturday arrivals.

Cape Town’s ‘Friday Night at Fiction’ Killer Robot Legends were up at eleven pm banging some of the tunes that brought together the bass (dare I say foundation setting) music appreciating young people that have been following their party nights in the city for some five years. They built the sound levels up all in the rightful slot just before Detroit Techno pioneer Kevin Saunderson.

I take a deep breath here and pause for a second… when remembering what the start of this man’s set was like. Kevin (The Elevator) Saunderson came in hard, deep, aggressive yet smooth with his first track slightly lifted from the Killer Robot experience we’d just had. Hot, sweaty, happy and after the entire awesome ear pleasing of the evening it was only getting better!

Taking us through a series of classic tracks, he did what only he seems to know how to do. Elevate. Oh yes, bumping, jumping, sucking lollies and sharing water bottles and drinks with my fellow ravers and gleeful friends, we only got higher! So surely and clearly in the midst of a legend he did not disappoint or live down the hype so often created by a big name coming to play a set in your home town. Kevin Saunderson destroyed!

Anthea Scholtz was up next and had the substantial responsibility of holding down the Techno fort after the beat rocking by Kevin. She did this with ease and grace, continuing the ecstatic flow of beautiful music going and we loved her for it.

Digital Rockit played the closing set as trio of musketeers in all black get-up and LED ring masked faces making it the perfect trippy end to a memorable night. So gloriously awesome in its show stopping appeal.

The tunes got shut off at around five am and the tent lights went on, the rest of the venue in complete darkness. Those of us who were still kicking a buzz walked almost as if by instinct to the water at the Beach bar area. A few hippies were beating djembe drums and creating enough musical energy to draw the last of the still awake party people to where they were. In the true spirit of spontaneity a few of us started singing along to the rhythm of the drums, creating our own music and enjoying ourselves tremendously.

It was very clear at that point that the true spirit of the festival lies within the people. An experience to experience and a special kind of week-end, hard to place within a definitive description. You have to be there to know just what we were all so happy about!

REVIEW: Mary Honeychild

Read the Exclusive Interview with Detroit Techno Pioneer – Kevin Saunderson

For a Full Rounded Review of The Ray-Ban Main Stage – Check out what Eliza Day experienced – Here