It’s RAMFest Reality Day!
***It’s 4am, just did RAMFest, no sleep.. grammatical errors are to be expected*
Less than 24 hours after this post, I have a less than favourable opinion of the event that I was so looking forward to.
It wasn’t really the bands that let me down, more the conclusion I had reached when I sat thinking why the organisers of RAMFest did the things they did. In my opinion, the event we had all been looking forward to was horribly attended. Probably similiar to the first BBQ O.J. Simpson invited all his mates to right after the Not Guilty verdict was announced: everyone says they’ll be there but on the day only a hard few actually show up.
To add to my frustration, I had heard earlier in the day that the organiser, Dawid Fourie, was saying that he was essentially bummed with the support the Durban leg of the tour had recieved and that this would be the first and last of it. MC John Vlismas, on the night however, stated that there was “no f@*king way RAMFest would not come back again”. Regardless of where the truth lies, it was still dismally attended and most of the crowd (who had paid R200 bucks, mind you) that did come looked half-interested at best.
However, I’m not going to let this be the start of another “You see, Durban never supports concerts” debate; this time it’s not our fault.
Let’s check it out…
Seeing since it was the first ever Durban leg of the RAMFest tour, the orginisers could have made use of any of the following people as a mouth piece to market the event: zero31, Bob Perfect, DurbanIsYours, The Corner Cafe blog, Matt Knight, Hruki bla bla bla etc. but they didn’t seem to. It seemed like they were amped to do it all themselves which in the beginning is admirable but after you were there … you couldn’t shake the feeling it was ‘cos they just couldn’t care. That was my conclusion: RAMFest didn’t really care about Durban. How can you expect things of people you don’t know, like coming to your gig, when you haven’t respected them as a music-loving population to begin with. So…
- It was on a WEDNESDAY! What the hell! With no public holiday on either side. ’nuff said.
- You essentially had to be 18 to come.. that’s another way of saying you can only attend RAMFest if you’re old enough to go to varsity or have a job … PS. The first band IS ON AT 5PM!! (Do you see where I’m going with this)
- Not a single effing Durban band on the line up. NOT ONE!! ’nuff said.
- The proof was in the pudding when the crowd cheered for their first encore of the night as soon as Funeral For A Friend had finished their set, but were instead greeted by the sounds of some Mango Groove and Johnny Clegg vibe over the system. Vlismas wasn’t even coming through the speakers ‘cos they had turned it off in their rush to go home. First Durban RAMfest, first encore shut down!
- THEY PUT VAN COKE KARTEL ON AT 5PM ON A MID-WEEK day! What?!
- The alcohol tent ran next to the main crowd area, but you weren’t allowed to take drinks with you, hence encouraging people to stay on the sideline.
A simple alternative solution for these points could have got a couple more hundred people in. Ous are bleak, trust me.
For the record, the moment I found out about this event, I emailed Dawid Fourie and basically offered my blog to him to punt the event until it ran in Durban. He gave me the email address of another lady I should email, who then forwarded my email onto someone else- I have yet to hear anything back at all, from anyone.
It really felt like they didnt respect the Durban crowd and were keen just to get it over with as a chore on their tour of the other “cool cities”.
All I know is, there were more people at Burn a few weeks back for VCK, then when they opened RAMFest. But hey, you want to give us the worst day and time in the history of Durban rock outings, then you live with the consequencea.
Pfft, what do I know? This is just a kak little blog afterall.
TwoSlice
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This also happens in Jozi …speaking from a bands point of view.
Aweh Darren,
Are you talking about RAMFest specifically or just in general? What band you in?
Oh, welcome to zero31.
Just in general … look at how big the bands overseas are because of all the effort the organizers put into every event they hold .
I play in a band called MEIMERA DEIYI – we’re from Boksburg in the East Rand.
m/
After going to the CT festival, I chose not to do the DBN leg last night.
I had had the perfect experience in CT, with the people I wanted to share those bands with, and although I had serious FOMO for not going to the show last night,
I stuck to my guns and eagerly awaited stories of how mad it had been for the Dbn friends.
So it was with mixed feelings that I read this entry.
The placement and rules of the bar, the time it all started, the venue choice, all were signs of a show planned by people who have not spent any time in the city.
Those factors, coupled with the fact that everyone in Durban always has access to free tickets means I’d be surprised if the event organizers think Durban was a very profitable leg of what is an amazing festival when done correctly. Whether Durban gets included next year will remain to be seen, but if it does, I’d hope to hell they’d learn from these mistakes as well as the one to ignore blogs like this one, with a capacity to reach the exact crowd required to make it work.
There are a few things mentioned though, that I feel we must be careful about.
Durbanites tend to feel particularly hard done by, due to our ongoing status as the ‘retarded cousin’ among the other provinces.
We must not take bad organization too personally.
The “Not a single effing Durban band on the line up. NOT ONE!! ’nuff said” is not because Ramfest doesn’t care about Durban. They came here didn’t they? There were no Durban bands last night because no Durban bands made it onto the official Ramfest line up. Ramfest is a three day festival; the Durban and Jozi legs are merely smaller, targeted versions of that. Its not so much the organizers fault as the bands themselves that no Durban bands featured. Did they submit? Were they of a high enough standard? If Ramfest had a certain line up for CT and Jozi, and then Durban’s leg had Dbn bands that weren’t on the other two bills, it would mean we had our own [lower] standard. Not ideal either, right?
I haven’t heard anything good or bad about the staging; it was tiny compared to CT, but without any complaints either way, I’m guessing it was adequate?
“First Durban RAMfest, first encore shut down!” The refusal to allow encores is the biggest fuck you to an audience there could be. This happened at the Cape Town festival as well: its not a Durban diss, its an audience diss. We pay for our tickets, we stand and watch and party and sing and then we scream encore as our way of saying ‘thank you Band/ Organisers. We are loving it and would like some more. Please.” The band playing an encore is their way of saying, “thank you audience. We love that youre partying your tits off and we wouldn’t be able to do this if not for you, so thank you and heres another song.” To ignore this tradition is rude, but could be handled in a way that kept everyone happy if encores really are the devil to some organizers. Telling the crowd at the start that encores will not be played but bands will announce when theyre about to play their last song would do a long way to alleviate this ultimate ‘fuck you’ when youre screaming for more [and expecting it! For fucks sake, have these people never been to a show before? Encores are NORMAL!!] and the crew come on and start pulling the rig down.
Im just so disappointed that what should have been one of the funnest nights of the year [and we’re only in March!] seems to marred by factors that were so easy to control and change.
Hopefully the organizers do enough research into why Durban didn’t work as well as it could have, and don’t just write the city off as so many others do.
Aweh!
Firstly, thanks for the great reply. It’s so rad to see others putting as much, if not more, effort into sharing things we are all passionate about. Secondly, thanks for being honest at the points where you disagreed with me or thought I was being harsh. I hear you on the ‘encore’ bit. What I don’t hear you on is the ‘durban’ band issue. If there is an application process or if there isn’t, I have no doubt in my mind that either way, a concession could have been made or initiative taken by the industry pro/s putting this together and going “Guy’s if we’re smart, we’re going to need a big local band on this lineup. It’ll bring a crowd to the event which most of those guys have never been to before. So lets make it happen regardless”. On that, it’s definitely not a standard issue for me there.. As “fun” and “entertaining” as they are, if Die Antwoord can meet and perform the musical standard then a seasoned Durban band like City Bowl damn straight would of. Imagine the difference in turn-out, support, marketing etc.. just having a band like CBM on the bill. My thoughts.. Again, this isn’t a debate I’m wanting to engage in. Your reply was frikkin rad and well thought out, so fair play.
WELL SAID … WE’VE BEEN DENIED PLENTY ENCORES AND FROM A CROWDS POINT OF VIEW THEY ARE SLAYED WHEN DENIED.
THE BANDS THEMSELVES ALSO HATE THIS TREND…BEING DENIED YOUR ENCORE GIVES YOU THE FEELING THAT YOUR SHOW WAS KAK EVEN WHEN THE AUDIENCE IS MOSHING AND SCREAMING!!…WHICH TO ME SHOWS THAT THE ORGANIZERS DONT GIVE TWO SHITS ABOUT THE MUSIC….JUST MONEY ,MONEY ….!@#%$! MONEY !!!
Leigh, unless I read wrong, the organizers DID ignore “blogs like this one, with a capacity to reach the exact crowd required to make it work.” In the write up, Dre says “For the record, the moment I found out about this event, I emailed Dawid Fourie and basically offered my blog to him to punt the event until it ran in Durban. He gave me the email address of another lady I should email, who then forwarded my email onto someone else- I have yet to hear anything back at all, from anyone.” So my question is, what good would ignoring people who are so totally passionate about our city and it’s music scene do? Nothing, nada… Ramfest is proof of that. Just saying.
BRUCIE!!!!!! Hope you got that tattoo organised by now
So ja, you read right.. but Leigh is on your side with that one. She’s saying that if they do come back next year that they mustn’t repeat the mistake of ignoring established Durbanites who want to help.
ummm… *stares at the ground and shuffles in embarrassment* oops! Sorry about that then. I clearly read the comment in the wrong context?!?
DUDE!!! Call me… We still on for tomorrow? I’m not working tomorrow night, so any time from lunch time onwards. Lets go and get my lovely wife inked brother=]
Apparently the encore and times vibe was due to venue restrictions. Durban really does need a better venue than a fucking mall though.
Still comes down to bad organization, don’t you think? They could have fit all those people in the Bat Centre amphi, or… whatever, doesn’t matter. I know we both agree. Hell dude, what if they just had it on a Saturday.
The encore vibe couldnt have been a Wavehouse decision, cos it was the same at the Cape Town show which was on a festival site with no ‘curfew’ in place. The dj area went until 6 or 7am, but the bands had to be finished at 1am or something? its gotta be a RAMFEST choice. and we all agree, its retarded.
That was just their response on Twitter when asked about it. I think in their minds, BAT center wouldn’t have the right “festival” feel, although it would be mad, seen 3 international acts there and all have been kief shows. But even just renting a feild somewhere for a day and setting up a stage like the original Uprisings would be better than Gateway, but I guess that’s quite a bit more effort.
ORGANIZERS NEED TO INVEST INTO THE MUSIC MORE … MARKETING FOR ALTERNATIVE EVENTS IS REALLY PATHETIC …YOU ONLY HERE ABOUT UPCOMING SHOWS IF YOU PERSONALLY LINKED TO THE APPROPRIATE VENUES SITES ,INSTEAD OF IT BEING ON RADIO,TV,MAGAZINES AND EVEN FLYERS BEING HANDED OUT AT ROBOTS OR IN MALLS AND SHOPS.
WHY DONT THESE PEOPLE LOOK TO HOW THE BIG COUNTRIES LIKE USA AND UK DO IT…GET BIG BANDS LIKE THEY DID WITH THIS ONE…HAVING THOSE BANDS HEADLINING WILL AUTOMATICALLY BRING THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE .IN TURN ALL THE SMALL SA BANDS INCLUDING CHROMIUM,WARTHANE,KNAVE (i call them small because they have yet to make an impact on the musc scene like international bands) WILL BE EXPOSED TO ALOT MORE PEOPLE AND COULD FIRE OFF OUR LOCAL SCENE.
WE HAVE PLENTY TALENT THAT COULD RIVAL THE BANDS WE LOVE FROM OVERSEAS BUT NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT US !!!! SIMPLE AS THAT !!!
THANK YOU FINE m/
I can vouch for the venue playing a role in the timing/encore issue. I’ve run an event at the Wavehouse before and got in trouble for allowing an encore after 11pm. Apparently the residents in the area have a big say in how things work out and the fact that they’re not slow to phone in the moment the music is still cranking past 11pm makes things a little tricky. Its a huge stress for the venue management as they could be barred from holding live music events in the event that enough complaints are made. Being a Wednesday night, I’m sure the stress over that was somewhat heightened.
I’m not saying other plans couldn’t have been made – just thought that that point might need some perspective.