My 2 cents on the first edition of Large On The Lawn

What do you get when you add a sunny Mzansi Sunday, a lekker local line up and one of the most beautiful parks in Johannesburg? You get Large On The Lawn, Breakout Management and City Parks’ new mini concert series. It takes all the great elements of a day festival and turns it into one of the best lawn parties I have ever been to. This past Sunday was the first installment and this is what went down.

1 PM: GATES OPEN

To be 100% honest with you, one of my greatest concerns when it comes to a festival is parking. Especially when tickets are sold out like they were on Sunday. I think my parking  anxiety stems from previously driving a Golf. You never really knew if your lift machine  would have chosen a new master. Thankfully Golden Harvest park has a huge parking area. It’s big enough to to accommodate the 4,000 festival goers who parked their cars.

Lines were reasonable and I never felt squashed. They even sported an OYSTER bar.

2 PM: SHOW STARTS

First on the stage was Yannick Meyer, lead singer of Native Young. Yannick,  accompanied by his back up band, delivered a chilled out performance. This is something the local industry has been missing! A beautiful marriage  between Indie and Kasi pop. It’s easy to see that Yannick knows his vocal range from top to bottom and reaching notes that most artists can only dream about.

3 PM: MATTHEW MOLE: 

As the crowd started to full up the lus for a good party was apparent. People already made peace with 30 degree weather and were not going to let a little sunburn de-rail their fun by the time that Matthew Mole, the man with one of the busiest tour schedules I have ever seen for January stepped on to the stage.

The front barricade squad now started filling up with starstruck fans who had made their way to the front. Say what you want about the man, but he’s  got some serious talent. I don’t think he played the same instrument continuously for longer than 30 seconds. He was constantly switching between ukulele, guitar, piano, tambourine and for a grand finale he climbed onto the barricade with a drum bigger than himself!

4 PM: JEREMY LOOPS:

Jeremy Loops was the headliner for the first edition of Large On The Lawns. This was one of Mr. Loops’ first shows since he returned from the USA. I have never seen so many people run to the front before a show. I was also having a mini internal fan girl moment when I realized that this would be the  first time I was going to see Mr Sakitumi live. Mr Sakitumi is better know for his work with Mr Sakitumi and the Grrrl and LARK and is now part of Mr Loops’ band. The moment Mr Loops’ launched himself on to the stage the crowd lost their shit. The entire 4,000 strong crowd moved as one, dancing and singing along at the top of their lungs.

6 PM: GET HOME AND PASS OUT.

If every large lawns event is gonna be like this am not missing a single one. Next month (26^th of Feb) the sexy romantiese Afrikaans rapper Jack Parow and the chosen one of Afrikaans rock Francois van Coke will be on the line up. Tickets are be available from http://breakout.nutickets.co.za.

• General Admission: Adults – R150 (excl ticketing fees)
• General Admission: Teens 17-13 – R125 (excl ticketing fees)
• General Admission: Kids 12-3 – R85 (excl ticketing fees)
• Children 3 can enter for FREE.

Just a word of warning: Last month sold out faster than greased lightning so in order to avoid missing out get your tickets NOW!

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

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