Earthdance 2011 :: Best One To Date

If you did Earthdance properly this year, as our team did, you’ll understand that it takes, on average, about a week for one to recollect one’s thoughts.

An abundance of fun with a sprinkle of chaos, we were bi-winning this past weekend.

Allow me to break it down for you…

It’s Thursday night, and you try charge up with as much sleep as possible. Friday dawn shoes face and you overdose on vitamins, food, hygiene & prayers, for you know what’s about to happen. 48 hours of pure debauchery, no time to take breaks, no desire to stop going.

This is how we did Earthdance, and why we didn’t regret a single moment of it. Now, to summarize a whole festive weekend is a excruciating task, but i’ll do my best to give you the high’s and low’s:

The weather, for the first time in years, has been surprisingly fucking spectacular ; other than the slight wind and chill of Friday night, the whole weekend was blessed by a soothing sun and chilled out breeze, allowing each of us to make the most out of the festival.

The setup, words cannot describe. Shifting & changing from the previous years, the Earthdance team created an atmosphere that lives up to standards. 3 stages, all well equipped and decorated amazingly and accordingly. Vivid colours left, right and centre and all the facilities you need in close proximities. Camping grounds were found all over, and other than the slightly far parking, we were beyond happy with our home for the next 2 days

Psy Mushrooms

I should give a special mention to Lumo Sumo, for allowing some of us to stay in their Sumo City vibe, providing us with food, music, tents and just good ol’ vibes for the duration of the weekend – an absolute must for your next festival!

A mild downfall that kicks to mind was the age of some of the attendees ; whilst Earthdancewent out of their way and, often successfully, redirect those that were under 18 to safer grounds (i.e. back home), many seem to have made their way in. This resulted in copious amount of drunk woo girls and topless lumo bojties that, when collided, caused disruptive grinding of inappropriate nature that seemed to have spread and move like a swarm of insects around the festival.

But it was funny, so we let this one slide.

I don’t have the words nor the energy to go through all the musical acts of the weekend, for many of them blew my mind. The Red Bull music box catered for the various forms of your usual electronica. Highlights of the weekend were the likes of Mr Sakitumi, Kennedy, Bruce Willis??, Sibot, Counterstrike, Voice Tag (a big unexpected wow!) and more. It is safe to mention that the aforementioned group of inappropriate teenagers grinded vigorously at this stage for the duration of the weekend.

Red Bull Music Box

Next up was the Solar stage, which as the name entails, was powered by solar panels that were now fully charged by mentioned sun. Saturday night was a big highlight of mine, consisting of artists such as Jeremy Loops, Maoriginal, Toby2shoes and the king himself, James Copeland. At some stage, Jeremy Loops, James copeland and Jamie Faull (one insanely talented saxophonist) collaborated to give you a show like no other!

Solar Stage

The main attraction, the trance stage, was set up beautifully. Epic sound rig, coupled with a decor like no other, immersed us all as the artists did their thing one by one. Once again, a massive amount of respect for the likes of Artifakt, which controlled the Prayer for Peace with utmost perfection ; The Commercial Hippies, never failing to impress ; Broken Toy, for reclaiming his king title and Dirty Motion for proving, once again, that local is lekker.

Broken Toy dominating

Overall, I would say it was the best Earthdance to date, at least in my personal experience. Friends were found and friends were made, chaos went down but we all came back smiling. Our parties are growing and for that we need be proud, so let us all raise our glases (what, you weren’t drinking when reading this? darn it) and pay our respects to all those involved in organising the festival – much love!

Stormtrooper out.

Keep a look out for our Dont Party.TV take of the party!

All photos by Scott Rennie – click here for many more!