Over August 6-8, SA’s biggest music festival was held for the 16th time. OppiKoppi bears testimony to the strength of live music in this country, and the sweaty, dusty dedication of its audience. This, with a history lesson from the legendary Valiant Swart, is the story of Oppi 2010.
This place requires commitment. You have to love music to come to here. You have to love it a lot. That “it’s all about the journey” stuff? Bullshit. The journey – a three-hour drive from Jo’burg – is a walk in the park compared to the conditions that await.
There’s nothing here to make your stay easy. When the sun’s up, it’s blazing hot, and when it goes down, it’s freezing. Your tent’s either a sauna or a fridge. And the dust… A fine, red powder infiltrates every pore and binds with sweat to coat you in a maroon veneer. Even the vegetation is out to get you. It’s so dry the few bushes without thorns still poke and scratch you.
“Ja, the conditions do frighten away some people,” says Carel Hoffman, the OppiKoppi Productions president and the man behind it all. “It’s get-down-and-dirty, hand-to-hand, hedonistic warfare. It can cut you down at the knees. But that’s just part of the allure… People love it.”
Playing at Oppi was a challenge that the genre-defying rock/reggae/jazz outfit, Blk Jks, were once again willing to step outside their comfort zone to meet. Playing there for the second time, the guys knew what they were in for.
For the full story pick up the September Red Bulletin Magazine.
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