Oppikoppi Sweet Thing 2012 Update!

Yes Folks, Opppikoppi Sweet Thing (the 2012 edition of South Africa’s premier music festival) is on the horizon. There are roughly 3 months to go to before the annual South African tune driven soul cleansing bushveld brewhaha gets under way. The festival will be held form the 9th to the 11th of August this year.

As many of you reading this know, Oppikoppi sold out at the last few years which is a good and bad thing. The Oppikoppi family is hard at work trying to expand the camping terrain (doing some underbrush clearing, new dirt road creation, etc.) and laying out more water reticulation (which is their single biggest headache). The Oppikoppi crew are confident that they’ll be able to handle an increased capacity of 18,000 to 20,000 people and will be able to avoid ugly scenes of grown-ups lying on their arms crying in front of the main festival entrance.

It’s strongly encouraged that you either buy tickets in advance or stay in the city, there will probably be no ticket sales at the main Oppikoppi festival gate this year. You can also make a permanent impression on the Oppikoppi experience by suggesting new street names in the festival camp site via @oppikoppifest on Twitter and on the Oppikoppi Festival Facebook Page.

Great news for fans of good music and Oppikoppi pilgrims is that there will probably be 7 different stages in operation this year. Some stages are being broken down, new ones are being built, moved or expanded. The organizers are hoping to feature more tunes and more genres but they still want to keep a nice comfortable feel. Festival goers can also expect a few nice surprises. Oppikoppi are actually looking for a ballet company brave enough to take the plunge with them – please contact them via sweetthing@oppikoppi.co.za (if this is you or unyou).

Another extra bit the organizers are bringing this year is a more up to date camp site shop (which will have odds and ends for campers looking for forgotten-at-home utensils/tricks to make themselves look or feel pretty). And also possibly/probably a cold beer exchange mechanism for Windhoek cans so festival goers don’t have to try or be tried by the cops in the roadblocks more than once. Watch this space for more info in the near future.

Tickets are sold via the Oppikoppi Festival Facebook page at R700 or R750 on Ticketbreak. However, the sweetest deal is buying your ticket from the Standard Bank youth portal for only R600. They are supplementing each ticket for the fans and you DO NOT have to be a Standard Bank client, they just want you to see how decent and upstanding they are. Visit www.standardbank.co.za/studentachiever to make use of this option. Info on bank cards to follow as well, but the most common query is whether last year’s cards/value can be used this year. The answer to that question is “Yes Sir”. There will be a process to transfer the money to this year’s card.

For those of you who did not know, The Kreef Hotel is the semi-civil Point 5 Star accommodation institution option for anyone too old to face Mordor/District 9 for three days. Residents of the Kreef Hotel can expect hot showers, clean toilets, full-time security, buffet breakfast, cell phone charging services, luggage porters, a private bar and really nice clientele for large parts of the day and night. The calm thing is to remain important. The hotel is sold out each year so booking is essential. To book, click on the Kreef Hotel ticketing tab on the Oppikoppi Festival Facebook page. For more info, please e-mail tania@kreefhotel.co.za. PS: The Oppikoppi organizers are also investigating a possible campervan village after many requests from the Oppikoppi faithful, if this is of interest to you, please e-mail nicol@oppikoppi.co.za. PS: He likes caravan people (and their families).

For those of you wondering about the line-up, artists are being announced daily on the Oppikoppi Festival Facebook page and via @oppikoppifest on Twitter so keep Social Networking savvy eyes peeled at both those profiles. So far Bittereinder, Shadowclub, Thieve, Fokofpolisiekar, Dance You’re On Fire, Jack Parow and others have been announced for this year’s festival.

Watch this space for regular updates in the Music News section and Music category on Running Wolf’s Rant.

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Henno Kruger

Blogger, Desktop Activist, Twitter / Facebook Addict, Music Festival Addict, Avid lover of South African music, Founder and owner of Running Wolf's Rant and co-founder of SA Music Zone