Misty Waters Music Festival 2024 – Quick Little Long Recap
I am still not over Misty Waters 2024 and I think it might take a while to fully shake off the Misty blues. This year surpassed all expectations and could not have gone any better from all perspectives – organisers, attendees, vendors, artists, and outsiders.
About a month before the much anticipated weekend, fear started creeping into our minds and hearts. Misty Waters 2023 was a BIG one. We then had a long long weekend, which we deemed perfect to host our first ever Fringe Festival leading up to Misty Waters Music Festival. Our line-up consisted of Wonderboom, The Narrow, Karen Zoid, Desmond and the Tutus, Van Pletzen, and Fokofpolisiekar, along with 25 other phenomenal artists – how could we ever compete with that line-up and not only our expectations of the festival but the expectations of our festies?
Let’s start at the beginning. It’s October 2023 and we finally opened up the artist submissions for 2024. We are in the fortunate position, which took about three years to reach, where we are flooded with hundreds of emails all from extremely eager artists wanting to perform at our festival. Going into this shorter weekend we expected it to be much easier to find only 22 bands instead of the usual 32 bands. Oh how wrong we were. The underrated, misunderstood and sometimes discredited rock, blues, indie and folk music industry of South Africa is filled with some of the most hardworking and talented bands I have ever listened to and now had the pleasure to meet. Finding only 22 artists was set to be the biggest struggle of this year, but we had faith in our ears and hearts that we could curate a diverse enough line-up within our steadfast genre of alternative rock.
With the full intention of namedropping, I listened to half a song of VaalTaki, Highway Apostles, and After Wonderland and simply knew we had to have them on our line-up – no questions asked. And already they have such different sounds and deliver completely different types of performances, but we had the start of a story. Slowly but surely we started shaping our Misty Waters 2024 line-up. With big names like Albert Frost, Dan Patlansky, and Glaskas who already had their spots guaranteed, we had some relief in trying to compete with Misty Waters 2023.
As organisers, we realise each year is going to be different and some year’s bigger than others. Naturally, you keep the previous ones in the back of your mind and try to grow and advance the festival from that. We take the time to listen to our festival goers and their feedback – with a big one being the state of the portable toilets from previous years. Our festival ground developers took the liberty of creating new ablutions out of thin air – not really, but literally in less than 3 weeks. There was nothing and then there was something. Right before the festival, there was something and more than that; beautiful and spacious bathrooms with showers, toilets, sinks, baths, and hot water! One of our self-appointed and non-official slogans is “Rock doesn’t have to be rough” and this year took that slogan to another level with the newly built ablution block. This allowed general campers and band-camp campers to have ablutions within 5 meters of their camp and Kamp Oase campers had their own ablution block.
Enough about toilets and talent booking – let’s get into the festival itself. The seventh Misty Waters Music Festival took place at Lake Umuzi in Secunda from 26 – 28 April. It started on Friday, April 26th with a drumming circle hosted by Klitsgras Drumming around one of our boma’s. It created the perfect tribal vibe for the arriving campers entering the grounds and setting up their camps. The food, merchandise, and drink vendors were already set-up from the day before and they filled the festival grounds with a lovely mixture of aromas. With the djembe skins warm from drumming and the water bottles filled to the brim with brandy and coke it was now show time. VaalTaki kicked off our weekend and they did not disappoint. They sounded exactly the same as the first time I listened to Suzie in my dining room. Next up was the alternative rock band with a splash of pop Highway Apostles, Afrikaans legends Glaskas, top rock performer Albert Frost, 2nd best blues guitarist as voted by Total Guitar Magazine Dan Patlansky and still rocking as hard as ever, Fuzigish! The night ended with heavy head banging and the long-awaited mosh pit while Crash and the Void sent us off into the night. The next day comes with the promise of best-dressed prizes, another drumming circle, a fire sign, and 11 more performances.
Saturday, April 27th started with a freshly brewed cup of coffee from Eco Coffee, a juicy meal from Justino’s to line the stomach and a spot around the boma with a djembe between the legs. While everyone’s fingers were trembling with excitement on the antelope skin, Meel Vignetting arrived and started their sound check. The first act for the day and the perfect way to get everyone up and out of their tents and caravans, followed by Hollowbody who also performed at this year’s low key/mini Fringe Festival. Ready to get the crowd dancing we had Black Heidi, who never disappoints. We went straight into the carnival after Black Heidi with The Dukes of Note who flew all the way from Cape Town and then got into a car and “drove on a kak highway” as our MC Steve East put it so nicely, to perform for us. We were honoured to have Painted Flowers performing again this year after their previous performance in 2022. Speaking of painted flowers, we had festies with the most fascinating painted faces and colourful costumes who won the best dressed prizes. One festie walked around with an actual gutted television on their head throughout the whole day. There were so many fantastical outfits and hopefully we get to see them again next year!
Up next on the stage we had the folk queen of African chant and let me just say, I was awe-struck and didn’t know someone could sound like that live. Ann Jangle absolutely mesmerised the crowd and was a definite highlight for many festival goers. Native Young also graced our staged again after a few years and as always, what a privilege to have them at Misty Waters and performing during the sunset. Of course we had to have one of the top blues guitarists at our blues festival and Dan Patlansky never does not go all out with his performances.
We know you’re probably wondering at what point does the Misty Waters fire sign gets lit. Relax, it’s coming, then you can put your phone down and return to your boring desk job. After the blues king himself, Spoegwolf put up an earth-vibrating performance with Danie climbing up the stage structure and running around like a straitjacket escapee – as one does. They hit it out of the park and left the stage nice and toasty for The Black Cat Bones’ first Misty Waters performance with new lead singer, Gareth Wilson. As we all can agree, it is different, but not in a bad way. Seeing the Black Cat Bones without Kobus’s dreads and porcupine needles is something to get used to, but the band sounds incredible and rocks just as hard.
Our head organiser, Dian Rosslee, discussed with Andre Kriel to light our Misty Waters sign during their last song in honour of the vibrant life Kobus de Kock Jr lived and the fire he left inside all of us. We decided to finish off our second day with the one and only, the neo-gereformeerde metal boer, Worsie van Wyk. He and his band, Piet, Piet and Piet was something from another world. A world where everyone drinks Klippies and cola, wears two-toned shirts and growls Afrikaans very deliciously. With the toktokkie dance still freshly engrained into our minds and the last of the ember dying out on the fire sign, everyone headed to the Wilge Lapa for a DJ dance party hosted by Steve East.
After a Rehydrate, a few Grandpa’s, and a Hulk Juice from Gas Monkey, it was time to embrace the last day of Misty Waters 2024, April 28th. Not going to lie, if it wasn’t for Basson Laas’s gentle voice and absolute care free persona, the Sunday scaries would’ve set in real hard. He created a lovely, calming tone for the rest of the day. It was the ideal Sunday funday to spend on a picnic blanket in front of the stage with friends and family. After Basson we had previous Misty Waters’ attendees, who now performed – you never know where your next gig could be coming from. After Wonderland turned up the heat and really livened up the crowd. Next up was Indie Dog with an electric, superlative performance followed by Bad Peter. You know we had to get them on a Sunday…and yes, everyone did get Stupid on a Sunday and regrettably had a few too many craft beers from Homebrew Lab considering the Monday was in fact not a public holiday. Ending our mystical music-filled weekend was the hardest working reggae band, Tidal Waves. It would not be a Misty Waters Music Festival without them encouraging everyone to Lekker Lekker Dans for 2 hours straight. To bid adieu to our magical weekend a stunning Spotted Eagle Owl landed on the willow tree behind the stage as Tidal Waves was ending their set.
The weekend ended beautifully with an auction of a signed guitar to raise money for homeless cats and dogs through the Little Paws Big Hearts Non-profit Organisation that strives to improve the life of every dog and cat in rural communities around Secunda. They were able to receive more than R15, 000 from the guitar and as the sun set on the last day of Misty Waters 2024 the remaining attendees (who were smart enough to take the Monday off of work) crowded around the last burning boma to soak in the final ethereal moments before heading back to reality.
Safe to say, it was another successful Misty Waters. We had fun and trust everyone else had a good time immersing into the blues and rock music world of South Africa. We’re not planning on ending anytime soon and hope to grow alongside the musical industry for many years to come. See you all April 25th – April 28th 2025 for another rocking weekend. Remember, rock doesn’t have to be rough. We are one of the only festivals in South Africa that offers affordable, luxury accommodation within walking distance from the stage. Don’t sleep on booking your accommodation for Misty Waters 2025 and sleep in luxury at a rock festival.
