First Electric Vines is a hit
9 Jan 2015
With tickets in hand, bags packed, car filled and drinks chilling we set off to Arabella for the very first Electric Vines music festival. Although a first-time event, it felt like an old friend we'd been visiting for years. With towering mountains as our backdrop, both a live and an acoustic stage, and luscious grass to park our tipsy bodies on it was easy to make this home for two days.
The line included Prime Circle, Gracetown (who won the competition to be the opening act), Just Jinja, Jeremy Loops, Matthew Mole, Pascal and Pearce, Night Natives, the Australian duo Sun City and much more, we were at no loss for entertainment.
Jeremy Loops
I was fortunate enough to chat to a couple of the musicians and, as I have said countless times, it is an honour to meet such humble artists. It is evident that they all still have a deep respect for the fans and it is probably why time and time again crowds flock to see their favourites.
Gracetown, a group of high school friends who started their musical journey in church, won the competition to be the opening act. It was awesome to see these gents take to the spotlight like they were made for it and the encouragement from the crowd was chilling. Twelve months ago they saw Matthew Mole at Kirstenbosch and now to play on the same stage as him - well as they said - it was a dream come true.
Prime Circle to return
Over a quick bite to eat before show time (and perhaps a sneaky Tequila) I got chatting to Ross from Prime Circle. He was in awe of the organisation, sound quality and general atmosphere of the festival and was adamant that they'd be back next year. In 2015 Prime Circle will be launching an airline as well as doing a Halloween steam train event, definitely something to keep an eye out for. Ross explained that they want to move away from the 'gigs' and more towards 'events' that have people saying: "I was there."
Jesse Clegg
I take my hat off to those who had a hand in organising Electric Vines 2014: the security was superb, the ablutions spacious and always clean, plug points allowed for hair drying and (more importantly) cellphone charging and, although a few hiccups as can be expected, everything ran smoothly.
So what can be expected from Electric Vines in 2015? The plan is to have a few Electric Vines events throughout the year as opposed to just one. They are also looking at having an Electric Vines Café for up-and-coming artists - it should be interesting to see how they do in the next few years and from what I've seen I can only imagine it'll be huge.
