An Artist's Web: Rocking the daisies DAY 1- Flight of the KONGOS

Doing it 49m RTD style!

After finding out that the Kongos were part of RTD’s amazing line- up, we couldn’t wait any longer to get the tickets. We got our tickets a month prior to the event that was taking place from 4 October- 7 October 2012. Pure excitement and preparations followed after.

We arrived at the Darling Wine Estate on Friday 5 October in the afternoon and we had just missed the traffic. Parking was being extended by a tractor grass cutter which meant that if you parked your car and forgot to count which row you parked in, then let’s just say you would need to organise a team, a DRINK and a torch( night-time) to find your car. X_X Can’t Watch bbm face.

FYI this information is useful for the next RTD festival that’s a definite MUST GO! DATE MARKED ON THE CALENDAR ALREADY!

We proceeded to look for space in the general camping area that was already packed with millions (exaggerated count)of RTD campers that arrived between Thursday and Friday afternoon. The energy and great daisy vibes were so intense I almost wet my pants from excitement- Like Super big WOW eyes , huge smile and of course a can of carling in the one hand.

Our Mission: start drinking Immediately

Our Vision: Drink and follow the crowd

Objectives: Try and stay tipsy( not drunk and not sober) before Kongo’s performance at 11pm, Friday Night

We got our tents up quick and trekked to the main sites to check out the scene. I just mention that socializing especially with friends requires strategic planning and effective communication. What happened after we set up camp was hours spent trying to get everyone together in one place. My sister and her boyfriend were only arriving later in the day after sunset. My phone was dying and we forgot to pack all our chargers including the one for the car. But with a huge crowd like this and every second person possessing a blackberry, there was bound to be a charger floating around somewhere- Oh and in case you are wondering, there is a Daisy Den in the general camping area with power plug points. At this point I just needed my phone to survive the next few hours till we got my sister and our other friends together to organize meeting points and familiarize ourselves with everyone’s camping area.

We walked to the main sites and watched “the Brothers move on” on the Main stage at 5pm. One of my friends Siya is the voice of the group/band. It was like watching performance art. Amazing costumes, moves and interesting sounds. Well that was MOST DEF a good start to a crazy weekend.

We walked to the entrance of the general camping area to wait for my sister and her boyfriend who were in a queue outside to get in. We eagerly waited for them inside like one does at the airport holding a greeting/ identification card. We had a few drinks at our campsite with a few swigs of TEQUILA ( maybe more than a few) but we still stuck to our objective for the evening.

As time went by, it was getting harder and harder to stay Tipsy. We walked back to the main stage in time for “Isochronous”. For those of you 5fm listeners, their song, ‘No Fire’, is currently no 2 on the 5Fm Top 40. Yes that is Isochronous and they were AmaZing. J

We played some pool (well they played and I watched) and enjoyed the refreshing taste of Carling Black Label. Then Finally Kongos performed and it was Mission Accomplished. This was also the primary stage of voiceless society . I sang so loud, jumping up and down so much that I almost knocked myself out. And when they played a track by their father, John Kongos, I almost cried.

And that how we rocked it the first night - at least from what i can remember :-)