So there were lank complaints going down on the Facebook wall on the Monday following Sprung 2012. Some said there were too many jocks, others complained about the lack of room on the dance floor (what did we expect? People have been frothing for an outdoor all winter, did you think there’d be 300 people there or what’s the story?). Yes the car queue was somewhat of a joke but, where there are masses, there are queues and instead of bitching one could have used the time to make friends with those around them and pumped their own tunes while they waited for Edit & Run to start off the party. Let’s not forget that Sprung has been the OFFICIAL first party of the season for many years and the “scene” is growing at an exponential rate. In fact, in comparison your 3 hour wait in the queue is dismal compared to that of the Boom Festival (the queue can take up to 6 hours, and you are just one of 25000 + people) so be thankful your wait wasn’t that long … okay, rant over.
We arrived with perfect timing actually – making it to the festival around 4:50 with time to spare to say our hello’s to those nearby, get re-acquainted with our buddy the ol’ “porto-loo” (love-hate relationships hey, what you gonna do?) to relieve our bladder from the trip to Stanford and ultimately make it to the dance floor as the music began.
The sun was shining, people were happy and drinks were flowing – the perfect recipe for a perfect outdoor; which is in fact the way I recall it. Sorry for those who had a kak time but maybe you just need to up those positivity levels next time… Remember your party is what you make of it, and the vibes you feel and spread, are the ones that you will remember, so think positive or, as they say, “THINK PSY”.
A bit of missioning was done during the first set, as well since it was a bit chilled for our tastes. More hugging, more hellos, refills, and laughing before the stomping finally began when Ritmo took to the stage for his first set (this being a DJ set, they saved his LIVE set for the close which was rather cheeky) of the weekend. The man delivered what was to be expected, memorable melodies and those ground shaking, yet not too ‘hardcore’ basslines. Thus making people froth, yet again, at the thought of his live set at the end of the journey (but more on that later).
SnowBot relieved the legend of his post, banging the tunes one after the next, after the next and rowling up the masses just before the mighty Mad Piper released the fury on us all with his bouncy, upbeat thumpers! One moment of memory was hearing a familiar yet completely different sounding voice, and then it was heard again, and again… Until everyone eventually released an almighty ‘WOOOO’ as he unleashed his remix of Deliriants’ – Chronic V2.0. I must say I was expecting Deliriant to play chronic, but big ups to him for letting Piper drop that beast of a track! Strain was where the night started to get dark and dirty, the party now in full-force, from dangerous leads to explosive basslines which got us GOOI’ING hard.
Deliriant was up next opening with a new one Unstoppable which was just that (playing some gems like Out of Control and Life Form, Shane knew exactly what the crowd wanted and we most certainly got it. In our faces!). Epic set as always and one to heat up the hungry crowd for more as Rubix Qube sent us all soaring with songs like Aweh thrown in the mix. More missioning was made before fighting off the sleep (as we do) between the hours of 4 30 (NeonGlo must have seriously worn us out with what we coined as “tik-trance” that night on the other hand being seen as a rather controversial set to a lot of the party goers, we in Cape Town are very picky about the kind of music we listen to, and a lot of people don’t even like the full on stuff our DJ’s bring to the table (this being 148 bpm) but NeonGlo brought a whole new level of Psychadelic ( 176 BPM at some points, this put what people were referring to as the jocks and posers to bed.) and 6 or so when I was woken up at the back of an open bakkie with a serious gust of wind over my face and quickly returned to the dance floor for the end of PlusMinus’s set – man was it worth waking up for (Dave and Mike had a beast of a job following the dark psy set of NeonGlo, but shit me sideways did they deliver, keeping us on edge and wanting more)!
I heated up in a matter of minutes jamming to this wonderful sunrise set with a few of my peeps, I had yet to see the night before, and hereafter was ready for round 2. Off we went to refill our pump bottles and fetch some fellow sleeping stompers before returning to get our Sunday stomp on! HARD!
Thankfully it didn’t rain much – in fact I only recall a 10 minute drizzle at most – and the sun stayed up for us to play happily all day!
Azax Syndrom was a firm favourite – as expected (Not having attended the party he played in 2010, and being an avid fan I was very pleased to see him post a status taking requests for SPRUNG 2012. All the posts I saw related to tracks that are well known Fight No More, Man on Acid, Power – pretty much the entire of ROUND 1 and ROUND 2 (the massive collaboration albums VS Bliss). I thoroughly enjoy my sunrise sets, so it was definitely one to remember! It felt like a bass explosion when his initial drop befell upon us and the memories of people’s screams are magical… Thank you Azax, thank you!
Following this mayhem was Up-Psy Down, I was intrigued by this time slot but the boys delivered as promised, keeping the beats curving, the smiles stretched and the vibe colossal. As any Cape Town Trance head would know, what better way to spend a Sunday than with some psy beats getting dropped to a massive, papsak drinking, music hungry, outdoor loving crowd? The line up only got better and better from there until Ritmo returned yet again to finish us off with a BANG (or 10)!
To conclude, can we forget about all the negative mess and be grateful that Season is back?
Leave everything behind and follow me … to Earthdance!
-Jeanne
(pics by media monster – to see more go here)
