Coca bowl of Zero Fest 2009

So far, I've been to three of the Coke Fests - 2007, 2008 and 2009 - and of the three 2007 for me was the best. Somebody said "Staind" and I said "Yes please!" With a line-up that featured Springbok Nude Girls, Hoobastank, Staind and Evanescence who could seriously stay away. 2008 welcomed the era of emo on stage with the likes of 30 seconds to Mars and a host of top class acts including Chris Cornell, Muse and Korn. In 2009 we saw a complete shift in the organiser's target audience with a more mellow line-up consisting of Panic at the Disco, Snow Patrol and Oasis as the international acts - defintely not moshpit material, much less jump-up-and-scream material.

These bands, along with the Dirty Skirts, Zebra & Giraffe and aKing are awesome in their own right, but it was certainly not what die-hard Cokefest fans have come to expect over the years. Peeps were duly upset and there was a bucket full of bitching, whining, yelling, toys flung around and promises of a boycott. But just when they thought they'd give it a miss, it was announced Bullet for my Valentine and Red Jump Suit Apparatus came on board and most people were all yippee-ka-yeah all over again. Three days before the show was to kick off, both bands dropped out citing lame-ass inexcusable reasons (go stick it to the man somewhere else you wanna-be-rockstar losers). It was a rollercoaster ride for those who were undecided on whether it was worth attending or not.

The Dirty Skirts

Let's face it, MyCoke Fest has never been about the local bands. No one pays R300 - R600 to watch SA's top bands rock out. We can see them up-close-and personal any day of the week for R30 - R80 depending on the venue and day of the week. So when our homegrown talent outshines the international "rockstars" you can consider that R300 - R600 a real waste. And when fans fork out R300 - R600 we expect to be blown away, have our socks knocked off, be razzle-dazzled! In all honesty Coca Cola Zero Fest 2009 was ordinary. It wasn't awful, but boy oh boy was it average. Waiting in anticipation for the line-up announcement this year there were chants of Kings of Leon, The Offspring, Green Day, Linkin Park, The Killers, RHCP, The Offspring, The Offspring and The Offspring (The Offspring mostly by me) to no avail it seems. But enough with the whining; it's over and done with now and hopefully BIG Concerts has made enough return on its investment to host the event next year again.

Lourensford Wine Estate in Somerset West was a beautiful venue for Cape Town. The view all around was terrific with the stage set on a hill. We arrived right on time for Foto Na Dans who helped in building the atmosphere with droves of people making their way in and getting comfortable, preparing for 12-hours of music. The weather was wonderful with not a cloud in the sky. Coke Zero promoters were everywhere cooling people off with misty spray thingies, sunscreening those who were overexposed and dishing out badges and wrist bands like it was the Christmas edition of the Oprah show.

Cassette

We promptly made our way to the beer tent and afterwards found a good spot for listening pleasure. Up next was Cassette who've had great success in South Africa with hits like "Tracy" and their latest album "Who do you trust" seems to be making serious waves on the music scene. They got the crowd singing and dancing along with their great stage presence. I'm not gonna say anything about the Dirty Skirts or aKing for that matter as I'm pretty biased when it comes to my favourite SA bands. Seriously can't wait to check them out at FROCK. Zebra & Giraffe are also great; it was the first time I saw them live and they put on a good show.

They were followed by Panic at the Disco, Snow Patrol and Oasis. Panic at the disco didn't really appeal to me so Mr Francis and I sneaked off to the Fun Zone to play some Guitar Hero. I, Player Two kicked his bottom, though he will deny it to his grave making up silly stories about us playing on different levels...whatever! We then played some foosball. It was a close match but due to the table not being very level, Mr Francis won, by 3 goals. We then returned to the stage area to catch the last bit of Panic. Ruth and I then made our way closer to the barricade to check out Snow Patrol who were nurse Betty nice. It seems the crowd were finding ways to entertain themselves by throwing girls in the air, which is always fun. We made some friends around us who randomly sneaked into pics...tsk tsk. We then grew bored and made our way to the toilet area which was well spread out and queues were down to a minmum. We raced back to the stage to catch "Chasing Cars" - a truly beautiful song and one of my favourites. Snow Patrol, of the international line-up, was the best for me.

Oasis

We then had a beer craving and found peeps playing our most favourite of sports - frisbee. Ruth and I are now professionals, after playing frisbee through the power outtage era in South Africa. We tossed and spun and ducked and dived all the while chewing on our biltong and trying not to kick our beers over. It was great fun. We then heard the instruments of Oasis winding up and ditched the frisbee team to check out the headline act. I found Mr Francis and we made our way to see if we could get a peek of the legendary rock outfit that's entertained the world with hits like "Wonderwall", "Don't look back in anger", "Champagne Supernova" and "Stand by me". They played some old hits and quite a few off their latest album. We sang along and cheered etc. but they were nothing to write home about.

We left as soon as they were done (no, not even an encore) to sit in two hours of traffic. We told stories of a cat-poodle called Mickedy-Poo and sang Dirty Skirts songs to keep ourselves entertained to avoid giving in to the frustration of bad traffic management.

It was a nice day out. Yes, just nice. Perhaps let's keep the sugar in the Coke next year though, yeah?

Check out the great pics Ruth took while wrestling with bouncers three times her size.

Other reviews:

Craigkolesky.com: Coke Zero Fest scores a fat ZERO here
Moralfibre.co.za: My Review of Coke Zero Fest
Channel24.co.za: Coke Zero Fest: Tonight I'm a rock n roll star