The 14th February of 2014 saw the coming of Ultra Music Festival (a global electronic music phenomena) hitting the shores of Southern Africa. With some of the world’s biggest names in the dance music industry at the moment like Tiesto, Afrojack, Martin Garrix, Alesso, Nicky Romero, W&W, Krewella and more, the stage was set to be the biggest outdoor electronic music show ever to be hosted in South Africa.
With over 15 000 EDM lovers, a spaceship-like world class stage and lighting with CO2 & Confetti cannons this 1 day festival kicked off with some of the Local heavyweights like 5FM’s DJ Fresh & Euphonic and built up to the grand finale of one of the world’s biggest pioneer DJ’s: Tiesto.
Overall it was a world class production by Electric, DSTV and Heineken with 2 side stages hosted by Dansville and Goldfish. Local DJ’s got the opportunity to put down some tracks as well but for the majority of the festival all eyes were on the main stage and international artists. During the night social media networks were going mental about the festival and one hot ranting topic was that some of the ‘Big’ DJ’s were not mixing with headphones and ‘faking’ it – but come on guys we all know now after the video of Juicy M that you can DJ without headphones on the Pioneer CDJ 2000’s, right? At least that is what they will say.
17 Year old EDM sensation Martin Garrix had the crowd jumping and excited during his set as everyone just waited for him to drop his massive hit single “Animals” as if they did not care too much about any of his other songs. The 1/3 of Swedish House Mafia “Alesso” was also a favourite amongst the Capetonians with his remixes and re-edits of the group’s songs as well as his own. Nicky Romero was probably the best of the night with a flawless, high energy set (With headphones on) as his new single with other artists on the night “Krewella” went down like a bomb.
The biggest disappointment of the night would have to be the technical difficulties during Tiesto set where all of us were waiting for the grand finale but not even that could keep the crowds from dancing till they drop. Although tickets for general admission were borderlining on the 1K mark the fans sure got every single penny’s worth for that and most of them would do it all over again.
A true benchmark for the South African Dance music scene where Shuan Duvet and the boys from Electric can give themselves a pat on the back for the hard work they have put it the past 3 years to make this event possible. South Africa is definitely looking forward to the next Ultra Music Festival SA if you ask me. In case you were wondering, the photos in this article were taken by Christopher Pitcher.
So, what did you think of Ultra Music Festival Cape Town? Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Feedback is appreciated and welcome here.
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Watch this space for regular updates in the Music category on Running Wolf’s Rant.
DJ & Producer by profession. Steve Aoki Remix on Ultra Records. Involved with Lucky Life TV.
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