The first of its kind, the Cape Town Electronic Music Festival (CTEMF) took place from Friday 30 March to Sunday 1 April and hosted some of SA’s leading electronic acts. We bring you a 4-minute video of the festival, featuring live footage and interviews as well as a post-festival catch-up with some of the artists and one of the organisers, Dave Ireton.
We caught up with various artists who performed at CTEMF and chatted to Dave Ireton, one of the organisers, to find out what they had to say looking back at the event – one which has surely been a milestone in South Africa’s electronic music scene history.
Fabio Di Cosmo aka DJ Cosmo from Digital Rocket(Listen!)
© Digital Rockit
The CTEMF exceeded my expectations in many ways, and although Sunday was not as busy as previous days, I was still amazed that on the third day the crowd had such a high level of energy.
Deep-house seemed to be the order of the day. Although I was only there for Black Coffee and Bruno Morphet, they both delivered quality sets with Bruno definitely delivering some of the deepest music of the festival. In the evening when we (Digital Rockit) played, the crowd was well into it and it went down really well, it was such a pleasure to play to them. I was very impressed with Regan’s underground quality techno and thought Goldfish killed it.
I thought the layout and location of the festival was pure genius, the sloped floor leading down towards the stage and backstage area were brilliant, the sound was amazing, the bars were always clean and quick and the weather just perfect.
Here’s to CTEMF 2013.
Floyd Lavine:
© Floyd Lavine
My CTEMF experience was one I will never forget, being able to say I was there from the beginning will one day be my ‘claim to fame when telling my gran kidz.’ I was booked to play on Sunday for CTEMF, I was rather nervous about my performance, firstly because it was great honour to be part of the first ever electronic music festival and secondly because I only had a little bit of sleep before my set which was at 13h00. When I arrived on Sunday it was rather empty so I was kind of relieved as my nerves were starting to get a hold of me. Many of the stage managers were very cool and professional, they made sure I was well looked after and made me feel at ease, which allowed me to focus on my set.
For me the most important part about CTEMF was how professional the whole event was run. Truly a worldclass event that I believe will grow, and in future become the cornerstone of the Cape Town music calendar.
I am very proud to have been one of the artists chosen.
Audiophile021 and Richard the Third:
Audiophile021
Do you think it was a good decision to have held the festival over three days?
Audiophile021:The three-day festival was a good idea as you cannot showcase the diversity of genres in only one day.
You need the time for the festival to grow – to morph. Numbers are not the most important thing. This is the first time we have hosted something like this in SA; CTEMF really set a standard, and people should be aware of that. (Audiophile021)
Richard the Third:It could only be done over three days. That’s the essence of a city festival like Sonar or Detroit Music Festival, that you go and party and come home and go out the next day. Also it was necessary to have at least three days to accommodate the line-up of artists that reflect SA electronic music; 1 day would have just scratched the surface.
Richard the Third
You spoke to a whole lot of industry people and artists in the Red Bull workshops that led up to the CTEMF – which workshops were most informative for you, and any words you’d like to reiterate for artists that could not attend?
Audiophile021: The lectures leading up to CTEMF were all free for the public to absorb information and network with people they would never usually get a chance to meet. I mean when you’re starting off, how do you get a chance to really sit down and get to know these people? When you have Dominique Gawlowski from Griet – an artist and management events company – sitting on a couch telling you about how signing artists and her experiences, well, it’s fantastic. We do these talks often but dedicated three days of talks, getting to grips about the industry and for artists to find out things themselves was a great idea – and a really good marketing strategy.
You can never underestimate the value of lectures.(Audiophile021)
Richard the Third: That’s not something I can easily answer! Because I hosted all the Red Bull sessions, they were all equally informative and fascinating packed with information.
I guess if there is one overall point to come out of the workshops is that artists need to balance being as independent as possible in the modern music world, at least initially in their career, and always remain focused on the music that they love making and playing. (Richard the Third)
CTEMF
How was your set?
Audiophile021: Yeah, it was a good one – I played beats that I looked and searched hard for – that, without sounding cheesy, felt a connection to. I had a good one.
The sound system was fucking incredible. (Audiophile021)
Richard the Third: For my set, personally I found the crowd really open. Got to play a nice range of bassy, housy stuff and harder edged stuff which I can’t normally play at other venues.
Any suggestions – being someone in the industry – for CTEMF 2013?
Nothing for the organisers, rather more for the people of Cape Town.That they should embrace partying during the day. (Audiophile021)
I mean to stop the mentality of ‘let’s go see a 10pm movie and then head over to the festival’. The festival was the perfect day setting, views over granger bay – cream of the crop artists playing during the day. You don’t need drugs to have a good party!
Richard the Third: Nope 
Everything was perfect.
CTEMF
CTEMF
Your opinion concerning the venue of CTEMF and over all organisation of event?
Richard the Third: Very well organised, there were no hiccups from my side. The venue is great for it being a festival that attracts an international audience as it’s well-located and has a great view of the ocean and mountain. Nothing like raving with the smell of the sea in the air!
Did you watch any other sets, if so, who was your favourite?
Felix Laband and Fletcher were amazing, playing their own stuff mixed over with quirky South African voice samples and Kid Fonque played a really diverse and varied set which I enjoyed a lot, but overall I felt like everyone brought their A-Game.(Richard the Third)
CTEMF
CTEMF, Mr Sakitumi & The Grrrl
Dave Ireton, organiser
We are very happy with the way the festival ran, we did not have one issue all weekend, our team was incredible… bars ran smoothly, the door never had a hiccup, the production was incredible, no noise complaints and best of all, positive reviews! We are so excited to get working on CTEMF 2013, there are some areas we feel we can improve on! Personally my favourite acts were… Kalahari Surfer, Markus Wormstorm, Felix Laband, Mr Sakitumi & The Grrrl, El Gordo, Monique Pascall, Black Coffee, Bruno Morphet, Dean Fuel, Regan, Goldfish and Ivan Turanjanin but that’s because I’m a bit of a techno-head I guess. Everyone was brilliant!
Big thanks to all the people of who came along and were part of the first Cape Town electronic music festival, and a big thanks to all our partners without you guys this festival would never had happened!
CTEMF, artist: AKA
CTEMF
Well, that’s it for now. From the team at one small seed, thanks to the above peeps for taking the time to speak with us and big ups to Dave Ireton and Duncan Ringrose (the other main organiser behind the CTEMF) for making this event happen and keep us informed about the next one guys.
Some links to check out!
If you haven’t yet browsed through our EleKTRONiK Dialogue category on onesmallseed.com, then here’s a few links to some of our video interviews with artists who played at the CTEMF.
Keep posted for upcoming interviews with Audiophile021, Protoculture and Haezer! Keep posted to our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter @onesmallseedSAfor updates!.
CTEMF
1 comment
nats says:
Apr 10, 2012
aweh for that after movie! siiiick, so glad i left the jazz fest from that! needed to party. look forward to next year.