DURBAN BEACH ROCKS TO NEW SA RECORD

Rock Da Beach, an all-day DJ festival held at New Beach, the venue of the FIFA Fanfest in Durban has broken the record for the largest beach party in South Africa drawing in excess of 10,000 people to the event on Saturday.

Organisers said the event, which was the anchor of the three-day Durban World Music Festival, had drawn significant interest due to the presence of iconic Romanian music producer, songwriter, performer and deejay Edward Maya.

“Maya’s hit Stereo Love is probably one of the most played singles on radio and this has contributed to his cult status,” said Nirode Bramdaw, one of the organisers. “He got onto the stage, pulled out his accordion and just lit the place up. In addition to Maya, we secured the best DJs and producers in the country including Fresh, Euphonik, Roger Goode, Lady Lea and Deon Govender and our formula seems to have worked well with the audience. We even added BBC Radio’s Danny Rampling to the eclectic mix!”

Bramdaw said the Durban World Music Festival, which was in its first year, had the support of the Durban Municipality, who urged organisers to utilise the spectacular venue.

“Many of the artists said that they felt like they were playing in an exotic location like Rio or Ibiza. The crowd was ecstatic and the atmosphere electric,” he said.

The party drew significantly larger crowds than other DWMF events – the Legends Festival on March 27 and Jazz da Beach, which took place on Sunday which was hamstrung by bad weather. The Flames and Johnny Clegg headlined the Legends Concert while Judith Sephuma, US-based jazz great Ronny Jordan and the iconic Hugh Masekela were the lead performers at the Jazz Concert.

DWMF also had a significant community component with the hosting of master classes and workshops at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and at the Ohlange Institute in Inanda.

Additionally, the event played host to the annual Indian Ocean Music Network conference that drew some of the key organisers of world music festivals to Durban. The conference centred around the future of live music in the region and focused on projects that would create opportunities for local artists. A series of smaller performances were held as part of the conference, which took place at the Alliance Française in Lilian Ngoyi Road.