Synergy Live Goes Bos in the Dal
This past weekend marked my third visit to Boschendal Wine Estate. My first was a complete nightmare and if it wasn’t for Synergy Live, it would have been my last. The organisers of this 3 day music festival could not have picked a better venue to stage some of South Africa’s top artists. The gi
gantic mountains surrounding the estate set the perfect back-drop for one kick-ass party, filled with good vibrations.
The High Five Moments
Those who endured 4 hours of traffic at Rocking the Daisies a few years ago will salute the clever organisers of Synergy. They’ve managed to eliminate queuing to the camp sites and ticket checking were done at the main entrance leading to the various stages and food stalls.
This year they’ve added an international act to the line-up and still managed to sell the tickets for next to nothing. With a killer line-up of over 60 South African bands, live acts, electro artists and Feeder, it was a steal at R390 for a standard 3 day ticket.
Hunter’s, the main sponsor of the festival, refreshed me like nothing on earth!
The weather gods blessed the festival and although dark clouds threatened to erupt into a storm on Friday, the rain stayed clear. Many people were saved from third degree burns thanks to the clouds that covered the sky on Saturday morning and by late afternoon they drifted away and we all admired the perfect sunset.
No One's Arc at Synergy Live 2010
The Main Ingredient
What’s a party without music, right? Boschendal came alive as class acts from all over South Africa filled the air with rocking tunes and magical sounds. Taxi Violence and Jax Panik owned the main stage on Friday night and No One’s Arc got the crowd going on Saturday afternoon with their uplifting music. Old favourites like Hog Hoggidy Hog and the Rudimentals really got the party started, while Flash Republic and Prime Circle kept it going until Feeder took stage.
The Dirty
Those green portable shit-holes are always a thorn in my side and all I want to do when I see them is RUN AWAY! The cleaners tried their best to keep the toilets clean but it was an impossible task. I’m still struggling to get rid of the smell in my mind.
Rocking without tequila…and wine
Why NO tequila on Friday?!? I’m not a fan of that stuff that taste like cough syrup and the only other alternative was Jack Daniels…without any passion fruit AKA no suit-cases! A bit of a bummer. We avoided the bar on Saturday…
During the course of Friday evening the Wine Detective mentioned that the bar did not stock any wine. I found this very strange. Here we were in the middle of the winelands without a drop of wine! Some sparkling wine with brunch and a bit of red at sunset would have gone down so well. Drinking only beer and ciders lead to boredom and/or bloated stomachs, which might explain the revolting porter loo’s. We did however spot a few die-hard wine drinkers with their favourite papsak, which proved that wine is alive and kicking at the wildest of parties.
So why the lack of wine? Glass restrictions at the event might seem like the obvious answer, but what about plastic wine bottles? I then discovered via the grapevine that Boschendal had sole rights to sell wine at the festival and seeing that they only use glass bottles they could not sell any. I feel if they really wanted/needed to promote their brand they could have sold wine by the plastic-glass. Guess they don’t need the exposure and if that’s the case I find it annoying that they rejected proposals from other wine suppliers who wanted to make use of such a great opportunity.
Apart from the above, which is also not really an issue, just an interesting observation, we had one hell of a good time and can not wait to do it all over again for the 3rd time. Few things can beat fun-loving people, having the time of their lives, while they go “bos” on radical music at one of South Africa’s most beautiful wine estates. Cheers to everyone who made the party awesome and the hangover worth it!
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