The Merchant Hotel
As most of you know by now, one of South Africa’s biggest alternative music festivals are happening at the end of April in Secunda, Mpumalanga at Lake Umuzi. You guessed it, it’s the Misty Waters Music Festival: Riders on the Storm, taking place April 28th to April 30th, 2023.
Misty Waters started out as a passion project in 2017, and included a Pitt’s Aerobatics air show and FMX stunt shows. And while all of this sounds rather intriguing and as fun as it was at the time, focus was quickly brought back to what really mattered at a music festival. And just like that Misty Waters emerged as a strong competitor boasting what seems to be the biggest line-up in South Africa in 2023.
Misty Waters has certainly made a name for itself throughout the years and we believe it is going to continue to become one of the biggest and most successful music festivals in South Africa. And if you ask the Europeans any big festival requires a smaller festival that is associated with it. The Edinburgh International Festival proved just that. Now, we are not saying Misty Waters can be compared to the Edinburgh International Festival or that The Misty Waters Fringe Festival is anything close to the world-famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival, but everyone has to start somewhere right? This year being Misty Waters’ fifth year and falling on such a beautiful extra-long, long weekend we had to step up our game. We’d be imbeciles if we did not make use of TWO public holidays surrounding the famous Misty Waters weekend.
With the gift of our extra-long, long weekend we decided to host a Misty Waters Fringe Festival. The word ‘Fringe’ is somewhat self-explanatory, but for the fun of it, let’s jump through our time portals and head to Edinburgh, circa 1947.
The Fringe as we know it now emerged when eight theatre companies showed up, uninvited to the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival in 1947. The International Festival was using all of the city’s major venues and left no room for the smaller folk.
It is then that the smaller theatre companies decided to take control and take over smaller, alternative venues for their productions. Their aim was to take advantage of masses streaming into the city to showcase their own alternative theatre. Although at the time it was not recognised as such, this was the first Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The major defining feature of a fringe festival was established early on – the use of unconventional venues. At first, these groups referred to themselves as “Festival Adjuncts.” It was not until 1948 that Robert Kemp, a Scottish playwright and journalist, coined the title “Fringe” when he wrote during the second Edinburgh International Festival:
“Round the fringe of official Festival drama, there seems to be more private enterprise than before … I am afraid some of us are not going to be at home during the evenings!”
In the wise words of Robert Kemp, we believe we’re also not going to be at home during the evenings of April 26th to April 28th as we’re going to be enjoying The Misty Waters Fringe Festival!
This is a festival not to miss, considering it won’t happen again next year. The Misty Waters Fringe Festival will only occur every few years on the rare occasion when Misty Waters Music Festival happens to fall on an extra-long, long weekend as it does this year.
Fringe Festivals are dedicated to supporting independent performers and artists while creating opportunities for diverse communities to experience boundary-pushing theatre and live performance at affordable rates. We are making our Fringe Festival completely FREE as we want everyone to relish in the music, while bringing more exposure to the smaller bands performing within this more alternative realm of music.
Speaking of alternative music, Misty Waters Music Festival is an alternative music festival featuring mostly rock, blues, folk and indie music as stated earlier. The Misty Waters Fringe Festival, following in the footsteps of its father festival, will also showcase bands and artists that generally fall into that genre of music. Another reason to attend the Misty Waters Fringe Festival is that it serves as sneak peek to Misty Waters and the type of music performed there. Perhaps you’re a lover of festivals, but never thought a rock music festival was your thing and didn’t feel like spending money to find out. Well, with our FREE Fringe Festival you don’t have to spend a cent to enjoy the music, you can get a sense of the type of music performed at Misty Waters and come to find you actually love it.
The Misty Waters Fringe Festival is taking place from April 26th to April 28th, 2023 at Eish Restaurant, Upstairs Sky Bar and Zebra’s located at Lake Umuzi in Secunda. The Fringe Market is happening at the new developments at Lake Umuzi, and will take place on April 26th and April 27th, 2023. The market will feature unique, artisan vendors.
Join us at 1 Kiewiet Street, Lake Umuzi, Secunda from around 15:00 until 20:00 on April 26th for The Misty Waters Fringe Festival and The Fringe Market. The very next day on the public holiday the festivities continue from around 14:00 throughout the whole day until late into the night! The last day of The Fringe Festival and the first day of Misty Waters Music Festival (Friday, April 28th) will also start around 14:00 with live shows until late at night.
As previously stated, this is not a time to miss or not partake in these celebrations. There’s always this lingering whisper around town that there’s never anything to do. We are giving you five days of music and markets, two of which are FREE! The Misty Waters Fringe Festival won’t happen every year and this year’s Misty Waters line-up is potentially the biggest music festival line-up South Africa will see in 2023.
Save these dates:
April 26th – April 28th 2023:
The Misty Waters Fringe Festival
FREE ENTRY
Locations: Eish Restaurant, Upstairs Sky Bar and Zebra’s at Lake Umuzi.
April 26th + April 27th 2023:
The Fringe Market
FREE ENTRY
Location: The new developments at Lake Umuzi.
April 28th – April 30th 2023:
Misty Waters Music Festival
R590 per person for the weekend until 31 March 2023. Price increase 1 April 2023 to R690 per person for the weekend
Location: 1 Kingfisher Street, Lake Umuzi, Secunda, Mpumalanga.
To book accommodation for The Misty Waters Fringe Festival or Misty Waters Music Festival please click on the link below:
https://lakeumuzi.co.za/events/misty-waters-music-festival/
If you have any more questions regarding The Misty Waters Fringe Festival or Misty Waters Music Festival please don’t hesitate to contact us: