Welcome to the River Republic

2 Dec 2015

It's quite a thing to witness the birth of a festival; most of our local fests are unruly teenagers or heading into their dirty twenties, well established with many friends and fans. However, every fest has to start somewhere and River Republic, brought to us by the same organisers who bless us with Up The Creek, entered the world wide-eyed and fresh faced at the Round The Bend Camp along the beautiful banks of the Breede last weekend.

As could be expected, it was a rather quiet and intimate affair, definitely not on the same scale as your heaving RTDs and Oppis. I think we counted seven cars on arrival late Friday afternoon. The campsite was not much busier; however this did allow prime tent real estate and it did fill up a fair bit later that night and the next day. Though to put this into perspective; there were three portaloos in the campsite and I didn't have to queue once. In fact, queueing was pretty much non-existent, a welcome change from any other festival where this is a way of life.

Tequila river

The venue is fittingly pretty and lush, nice soft grass and a fair number of shady spots in the camping area, while the stage and bar area caress the banks of the river and are nestled beneath the Round the Bend lodge and restaurant. However, if this festival expands in popularity, as it should, it will most definitely outgrow that space.

Blessed with happy sunshiny days, most of the weekend was spent aboard lilo in the soothing Breede, Tequila Sunrise in hand. As this festival is still on such a small scale both the main stage and river stage can both be viewed from the water. No endless up and down traipsing, super score.

Techno shapes

And what of the music? Well it was generally the smaller, lesser-known bands and DJs. I mean Synergy Live was the same weekend. However stand-out acts included the hipstery The Liminals, German reggae band Riders Connection, who pulled the biggest day dance crowd. Saturday night act Grassy Spark had many a-jumping with their upbeat Afro funk ska, while the following DJ act Jews for Techno had us throwing shapes to classics well into the night. 20 Dollars In My Pocket yo!