‘Dansville 29’ at Buckleys, Durbanville Nitty, gritty … and with a touch of Afrikaans.

Last Friday, we make our way along a busy Edward Street, passing a Hooters, some wine bars and dance floors blaring pop, to a certain Buckleys Pool Bar. I had been seduced weeks previously by a sticker.

We jump the queue, only to come face to face with a bouncer who isn’t impressed by my proclamation of ‘I’m on the guest list’- and it hits me: we’re not in Kansas anymore. An aeroplane banks overhead, a twinkle amongst clouds burnt dirty orange by the many city lights.

See Why productions have done it again – throwing their 29th dirty Dansville electronic party – and I’m here, amongst the somewhat daunting CY number plates to ‘see, why’ do these people party? Or more specifically ‘how’ do the Northern Suburbs kids make the most of man’s two-day freedom pass that is weekend?

Pushing past a couple of jocks, we step inside and find ourselves in a smoky room of pool tables: a metal chandelier above our heads breaks all stereotypes as it’s spider arms stretch and curl every direction. A rocker sinks a ball while a group of trendy-looking punks look on.

The clothes favoured this side of the Boerwors Curtain seem to be varying shades of… black. All I know is, you could cut the atmosphere of badass in here with a blunt rusty spear.

On the dance floor things are busy getting twisted.

‘Here the DJ is not put on a pedestal,’ Fabien De Fontenay, Dansville organiser, explains, as around us greasy bikers and preppies alike go wild for George Daniel’s solid sounds.

Flashing lights push tentacles of colour through gulfs of machine-generated smoke as hard house becomes dubstep becomes dark trance – anything you can Head Bang to really (a sport this crowd certainly seem to enjoy)

I touch a chipped fondly as a Prodigy song sends me back to that UK concert of 2008.

I begin to notice a goth/jock crossover, but a head of dreads and some bottle-blond plastics distort my third attempt at generalising. I come to expect anything from moustaches to spike-collars.

And suddenly Kansas seems a helluva boring… (smirk)

Do you think you’re badass enough to risk the raw static of the drum and bass, electro and dubstep culture of the Northern Suburbs?

Look out for ‘Dansville 30’ on Facebook

Or check out SeeWhy productions Page

They also organise a monthly party of a similar kind called ‘Ridd’ems’ at Blizzards, Durbanville

WORDS: Rachel Briant