The theme and venue for the Mother City Queer Project has been announced and the event
promises to be bigger, better and greener than before – both literally and figuratively.
‘Flower Power’ sets the scene for this year’s MCQP on the 18 December 2010 and where better
to go green than at our new Cape Town stadium in Greenpoint.

As the first post-World Cup lifestyle and entertainment event to be held at the stadium,
the MCQP are setting the bar very high and party-goers can look forward to five separate
indoor levels with nine different areas, each with its own unique sub-theme:

•    The Mercedes Benz, Red Bull “Red Carpet” Entrance,
•    A main house dance floor,
•    A 70’s Dedicated Disco dance floor,
•    A live bandstand stage hosting, among others, Flash Republic from Johannesburg,
•    A Gay Anthems Caberet dance floor,
•    An X factor – Live stage,
•    A dedicated Smokers Lounges,
•    Chill out lounges and wine bars,
•    A VIP Lounge with dedicated parking, entertainment, snacks and loads of bubbly,
•    And – another first – a Hippie trance dance floor.

VIP ticket holders will be treated to full access to all areas, secure parking underneath
the stadium, a Mercedes Benz drop off at the red carpet entrance and a exclusive VIP area
with its own dance floor, snacks, bars, entertainment and toilets.

‘There’s so much to celebrate this year,’ MCQP director, Ian McMahon adds. ‘As well as hosting
the best ever World Cup in our brand new perlemoen-shaped stadium, we also celebrate 150 years
of flower sales at the Adderley street flower sellers market and commemorate the 40th
anniversary of the half a million people who descended on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel,
New York for the Woodstock Festival – so there’s lots to feel flowery about. And what better way
to celebrate than a trip down memory lane to the sixties theme, Summer of Love.’

Now in its seventeenth year, the MCQP have played a huge role in putting SA on the pink tourist
map with 31% of last year’s attendees coming from out of Cape Town and 12% abroad.
This year’s bigger and better venue will help push the event close to Sydney Mardi Gras and
Rio Carnival status and set the stage for the stadium’s long-term post-World Cup goal of becoming
the premier destination in South Africa for sports, cultural, music, entertainment and community
events.

The involvement of the City of Cape Town in securing the venue and Cape Town Tourism with funding
and marketing is also indicative of the value that the City places on the festival.

Tickets are available on an early bird special at R180 for general entry and R350 for VIP during
the month of NOVEMBER ONLY. Normal pricing resumes in December at R220 for general entry and R400
for VIP and are available from Computicket and selected venues around town.

It felt as though we were in a fucking Science Fiction movie – looking around at this structure changing colour all around me and then I felt it – that all too familiar feeling of a heaving bass-line dropping at the peak of one mother of a grindingly staunch Drum n Bass track. I felt it standing about one and a half thousand people away from the stage in the biggest space capsule that my twisted mind couldn’t even imagine. It was sick. And it was one of those moments when your entire body explodes with excitement and suddenly you find yourself throwing limbs in every direction; jumping as high as you can jump, screaming as loud as you can possibly scream and it still doesn’t express just what is going through your mind at the time of said bass-line fucking up a dance floor of a couple thousand people. This was the moment I recall as one of those moments that will be etched in my memory forever. Mix n Blend were laying the foundations for one of the best nights of many peoples’ lives and we were there people – yes we were. This was around 6.15pm on Saturday evening – but we had already been there since 11am the previous morning. Rocking the Daisies 2010 baby – it’s going to be tough to top this one.

This year marked the 5th Anniversary of this very special event and, having been to every single one, I’ll proudly say that this year topped them all! From production, to the Line-ups, to the performances, the friendly smiles non-stop, to the awesome party crew I had the honour of getting loose with, catching up on incredible friendships (and making many new ones), to the Skeef Hotel (our new rendition of the coolest place in the world to camp), that amazing stage.. and don’t even get me started on that fucking Red Bull tent/space capsule again. In fact no, let’s. Well actually we’ll get to that amazing thing in a bit.

Kat and I decided a little while back that instead of luxing it at the Kreef Hotel, we would start our own one. For the crew. For the ‘Cooly’ kids. For shits and giggles (God knows there were loads of giggles). After much deliberation and one hell of a set-up session on Friday morning – The Skeef Hotel was born. This would serve as the most jacked-up base-camp ever and a pretty good landmark too since that camp-site became more congested than Cross-Roads on a bad day.

Friday afternoon was pretty much spent setting up tents for all the slacker bastards coming up on Saturday but after a couple boerie-rolls and heaps of tequila we finally made our way to the stage area. However, on the way to the stage one has to walk passed that previously mentioned Red Bull tent that really is out of this world. We popped in for a visit at our friends in a little psychedelic tent behind the capsule and then proceeded to enter the Red Bull Studio Live tent (official name for the space thing).

There is nothing like being blown away by something so fucking incredible upon entrance like it was walking into this thing. I know I’m carrying on here but anyone who was there will concur. Red Bull outdid themselves with this one, as they do. Of course our mate Taryn who works for Red Bull was claiming it from the moment we walked in there. “Fuck guys, how sick is OUR tent!! We did this!” she screams…
Fuck it, I would have done the same thing. Heck, if I even had a simple role to play like Velcro-ing down a strap I would have claimed it even harder! The beats at this time were very ‘warm-up-ish’ but I was too in awe of this thing to take notice and there was so much tequila being consumed at this point – the good ol’ crema de cacti, the essence of Aztec.. yeah that shit we love so much was doing a number on us and we were lapping it up as if those rebellious drops were what our lives depended on.

We finally stumbled our way to the Main Stage for Cape Town’s favourites – The Dirty Skirts. They killed it as usual – busting it out with their crowd-pleasing tracks and that all-round on-stage charisma that has firmly cemented them as a must-have festival act. The headliners were up next and the Skirts got that crowd perfectly hyped up for the next inclusion of one hell of a festival line-up!

Now I had never heard of the New Young Pony Club prior to this event but a good friend ordered me not to miss them as he had seen them in the U.K. and assured me they were the shit. Well he was spot-on because they were amazing. Stage presence to rival most and oh such a funky style – we were going nuts! That chick on the drums stole the show, the lead vocalist was top-drawer and the lass on the keyboard rocked the best shimmy this side of the Equator. It’s safe to say that after RTD 2010, the New Young Pony Club have notched up quite a few more fans. After a quick chatter-box/tequila session back at our beloved Skeef Hotel, we headed back to the Red Bull capsule.

Blush n Bass aka ‘iCandy and Miss Pickett’ were on the decks and laying down the law – the law of ‘When the beats are slamming, thou shalt jump motherfucker!’ That’s exactly what was happening here. Candice and Taryn have been playing together for a while now and let me tell you, I’ve watched them climb from their humble beginnings playing opening sets in the bar at Chevelle to this – mixing up a storm to a couple thousand people on a thunderous sound rig in the best arena ever seen. Good going ladies – it doesn’t get much bigger or better than this! I knew now, that if I didn’t get some sleep, Saturday would be a huge struggle.

So against all odds and with a hell of a lot of support, we headed back to the Skeef Hotel to crash. Upon arrival, however, we were greeted to the sounds of the good ol’ slap and tickle reverberating from one our esteemed guests’ tents. A certain guy (for the sake of the story, we’ll call him Steve) had dragged a P.O.W. back to the Skeef Hotel barracks and was giving her.. er.. let’s say a serious bout of interrogation. The few of us sitting there naturally had a good chuckle about it and the P.O.W. was a good sport too. The guy (again, we’ll call him Steve) eventually released her back into the wild and upon exit from the interrogation tent, she muttered the words “Gotta love the walk of shame!”. Good times.

The morning started off with the nursing of one serious bastard of a hangover from way too much interaction with Uncle Jose the night before but as always – this was nothing a couple of Myprodols and a decently oily fry-up couldn’t fix. We then got freshened up and proceeded to the dam for day of fun in the sun and some manky dam water.

Kat had purchased a wicked blow-up Dinosaur by the name of Diny (pron. Die’nee’) and a shark-tube which was.. yes you guessed it.. a blow-up tube with a shark on it. We set up a mini Skeef perfectly positioned a few meters from the bar and before long, the entire crew of usual suspects were there. Too many names to mention but you’re all tagged down below. The weather turned out perfect – the sun was out, not a cloud in sight and the dam was packed. It was a beautiful sight and this dam session really set things in motion for what was going to be one of the best parties of my life.

Sunburnt and in dire need of a freshen up session, we headed back to Skeef headquarters to get ready for the evening’s festivities.  I learnt a lesson here – never have your pants loose when Graham Sleigh is around as he, very stealthily, crept up behind me and pulled down my pants. And boxers. So the entire crew of guests at the Skeef Hotel got a full view of my goods. Dick. (no pun intended)

That’s neither here nor there. We had a mission to accomplish and that was to get to the Red Bull Studio Live tent and continue the shenanigans. As I was saying earlier – Mix n Blend annihilated that place. We made it in there just in time to catch their set which was a beautiful infusion of hard as nails Drum n Bass, tweaky Dubstep and some banging Breakbeats all thrown into a melting pot of madness for the masses. We were literally gunning for it in there and of course, Uncle Jose was along for the entire ride.

We then decided to make our way over to the Main Stage to catch the legendary punk band – Hog Hoggidy Hog, who were quite simply – off the fucking hook! We’ve been fans of the Hogs since they were young skater punks rocking out club and pub gigs in the 90’s. A little older these days (like many of us) but the Hogs still know how to rock a crowd with serious ferocity (again like many of us). I had such a blast going nuts to their all-time favourites that have made them one of Cape Town’s favourite bands – highlight of their set for me (and many others I am sure) was when they dropped ‘Under The African Sun’. The entire crowd sang along, screamed along and moshed along, it was insane – I felt like a little kid opening up Christmas presents!

After the madness of the Hogs, we went back to the tent of Red Bull. Niskerone was on and playing with just as much madness and banging tunage as what was to be expected in that space capsule of madness, we actually didn’t know what to do with ourselves! The legs were finished after jumping around to Mix n Blend and the Hogs but something told me I was going to have to harden the fuck up and soldier on – this night was still a puppy, long way to go!

So after a quick stint of chilling back at Skeef HQ, we hit the main stage again to check out one of my all time favourite Saffa bands – The Springbok Nude Girls. Like the Hogs, I’ve been following these guys since the early days at places like Springfield in Newlands and random small spots in Hermanus. They too still know how to slam a crowd and without doubt, the highlight was obviously ‘Bubblegum On My Boots’ which was an encore as well so the crowd went nuts – I’m talking about a 5000 capacity mosh-pit. Pretty unbelievable!

A little later on we were back in the capsule and Anthea Scholtz was on – and boy, was she on! This is another DJ who has climbed the ranks faster than most – her versatility, flawless mixing and top-drawer track selection have earned her peak sets at all the best events around and one hell of a following. Where Anthea goes, so do the masses and they were there in full force to witness Miss S go at it with everything she had – dropping the meanest of tracks one after another, the perfect set to lay the foundations for Killer Robot.

It was now time for one of the best closing sets (for the night) I’ve ever witnessed at any festival. After Anthea, I was thinking “There’s no way those tracks can be topped!” Well I was wrong because lo and behold, Killer Robot got on the stage and blew the roof. The meanest basslines reverberated from that monstrous sound rig (one of the best sound rigs I’ve ever heard by the way) and the tunes just got harder and harder. Gotta love the techno. The Red Bull Studio was heaving and I really do mean that with every fiber of my being – the place literally heaved until I finally left at about 5am and even then, it was still packed and punters were ‘avin it large! I had to get some sleep so against everything our bodies were all for, we velcro’d ourselves out of there and back to our beloved Skeef Hotel. Good night.

Sunday morning. Open eyes. Feel like death. Weather shit. Head in pain. Myprodols. Water. Food. Home. No hang on, not yet – we had to dust it off and get our mindset into enjoying the last day of Rocking The Daisies 2010. So we did. Don’t ask me how but we managed to sort ourselves out and after a quick-style packing schlep we headed back to the capsule of Red Bull madness.

Richard the 3rd was on and after a whole weekend of stomping – the punters were still going for it, still jumping and screaming! Our little crew were a lot more chilled sitting down in the middle – a few of us hopping around now and then but it really was time for the wind-down. I was arbing about with Kat – taking it all in, this amazing weekend we’ve just had and the sad reality that soon, it would all be over. The fantasy was coming to an end but I guess all good things must come to an end, right? Well after an awesome pizza at one of the amazing stalls on offer, we walked back into the space capsule and said our goodbyes, went back to the Skeef and took it all down.

Car packed. One last look back at the venue. One last goodbye. Bugger.

Rocking The Daisies – our favourite festival on the calendar was done and dusted, again. We felt like crap but it was good – I mean if you don’t feel like total shit on the Sunday at RTD, well, you simply haven’t done it properly. We did it man, we fucking rocked it and loved every waking moment! We introduced the world to the Skeef Hotel and it was embraced by all. We broke records here, we laughed a hell of a lot, we made a lot of new friends and heard a lot of good music. Rocking The Daisies 2011? Well, I can tell you now that it will be awesome and we will be there – Skeef Hotel and all.

K.S.

Well, heading through to Equinox I was very intrigued as to how it would all go down as
this was the first outdoor event done by the Labyrinth & Hype Media crew – both owned
and run by the legendary Dean Fuel and his partner Sam Allenberg. 

I can tell you that the both of them had been losing a shit-load of hair and gaining a
few grey ones in the weeks leading up to their first party - with so much at stake I could
hardly blame them but they got it sussed, pulled it off and let me tell you – it rocked!

It’s always a pleasure having a super breezy entrance and dealing with friendly security,
which at times at past events can be a real pain, so it was refreshing getting in and
ushered to a parking spot by the marshals in no time at all! Then we saw the set-up.


Now this venue, first of all, is incredible – such a sight with a dam nestled behind the
stage and the entire venue surrounded by forests and mountains – and a mere 40 minutes from
the city centre! The main-stage set-up was perfect with a grass-covered floor and décor to
rival the best in the business – it was unfortunate though that the stunning bright turquoise
shade that covered the entire floor had to be tied up due to the wind, I got to see it so all
good there.

Chris Jack kicked off proceedings followed by Mark LilPhil and both played extremely well
considering the fact that they had to please a bunch of people expecting banging psytrance
but they did get the feet shuffling with their selection of electro and tech beats.

Now, a lot of people were expecting a full-bore psytrance party but that is not what the
organisers had planned – Equinox is an electronic music festival and is more of a journey
through the spectrum of Electronic music and the sub-genres of house and trance – the type of
event that really gets me itching to move because personally, Electronic music has been a huge
part of my life for over 10 years now and the thought of it gets me so damn excited I can barely
contain myself!


So the whole concept of this event is different to your usual weekend bush-disco
which is great - it’s new, it’s fresh and it’s something just a little bit different from the
norm and I like it.

Connecto came on for the sundown set and I was literally blown away by him.  Seamless mixing of
some of most perfect psytrance for that time of the day is what came from that amazing Turbo Sound
rig – the sun was dropping and shining through the trees and stage and before I knew it, the floor
was packed! I actually got seriously upset if I had to go to the toilet or the bar because I just
didn’t want to miss out on a thing.

The tune selection was second to none and his crowd reading was spot-on – this set, to me, was one
of the highlights of the entire party because playing (good) warm-up sets at parties are really
tough but this was just right, it really got that floor pumping and it stayed like that for the
next 20 hours.


Lox followed suit from Connecto and kept the momentum going until Regan came on and rocked the place
as usual. Regan is a master in his class and has such a loyal following so naturally the pace kicked
up a gear and now this party was really in full-swing.  Everyone was going nuts – smiles everywhere
you looked and the bar was pretty festive too - Kat and I were nailing tequilas like our lives depended
on it!

But I knew we had to be responsible little children and hit a nap if we were going to be fresh and ready
to rumble for the sunrise festivities! So we did. Although I am told that the entire night went by with
amazing sets by the likes of Artifakt, Slug and Rubix Cube.

Static Flow got the morning vibes up with an awesome set to start the day off, playing some old favourites
by the likes of Protoculture which worked out to be pretty convenient since Protoculture was up next!
So Protoculture came on and rocked it! His sound is definitely not what it used to be and he does get some
negative feedback because of it but this debate has been going on for a while now and as I’ve said before –
he’s an artist and artists’ sounds are constantly developing and evolving as they move along in their
respective genres of music.


Protoculture is no different to this and his sound has slowly been changing over the years, adapting to
change in general and it’s pretty exciting to watch! He played an awesome set, winding his way through
various types of tunage and he nailed it. The highlight of his set undoubtedly was when he played Neelix’s
‘Give Them Free’ just as the sun crept its way over the mountain and welcomed in what was set to be a damn
good Sunday at Equinox 2010.

The Commercial Hippies rock – every time. The amount of energy they exude is so infectious and it feeds the
crowd in such a visible way, you almost have to concur with the fact that everyone loves them and looks forward
to their appearance at every party. They play some pretty sick tunes too.

Broken Toy. This dude is from another planet I am sure of this. The tunes he knocks out are really out of this
world – I’ve been a big fan of his music for a while now (I didn’t think much of him years ago to be honest but
a certain trance princess worships the ground he walks on - she got me to take notice a couple years back and
I’m so glad she did!). So it’s really no surprise that, once again, Broken Toy smashed the place!


It was somewhere around this time (my memory doesn’t serve me too well here) that the noise complaints
started pouring in and after genuine threats from authorities to cut the party altogether –
the sound was turned down.  Headroom played like a demon though - the combination of his banging music
and the sound turning up halfway through his set was something spectacular!

Now, closing sets to DJ’s are like surf-trips to Indo to surfers – they’re like a Mecca and they’re golden
but not easy to pull off! Enter Dean Fuel. Opening up with a Chemical Brothers rework, immediately sending
hands to the sky and doing what he does best – Dean nailed it good and proper.

After speaking to quite a few people about it, I have come to the conclusion that Dean Fuel is now a major
contender for the scenes best when it comes to closing a party.
So many have said that his closing set at Equinox was the best closing set they’ve ever heard and these freaks
that said this are seasoned outdoor revellers who have heard the best of the best for many years – who can
argue with that? His trademark crowd pleasing tunes (anyone recall that Low Rider remix??? What a track!),
his seamless & unmistakable mixing and that charisma behind the decks have truly cemented Dean as one of
the best DJ’s this country has bred.

Suffice to say, Equinox 2010 was a massive success and the organisers can be damn proud of their efforts
– that Sunday line-up really was the cream of the crop. On Saturday afternoon, someone said to me
‘They’ll be lucky if 800 people rock up being their first party and all.’,
to which I replied ‘Nah bro, I reckon at least 2000!’.

Well we were both wrong but I wasn’t too far off as over 2700 people came (event organisers had a target of
1500) to this pristine venue to witness the birth of something amazing – Equinox. We even had a couple
outdoor-party-first-timers with us and they can’t wait for the next one! With so much effort and attention
to detail being thrown into this incredible concept, it’s safe to say that Equinox has arrived and is most
definitely here to stay!

K.S.

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