Heineken Symphonic Rocks Festival

I have known about the Heineken Symphonic Rocks Festival for about 3 years now, but I have never been the right age to attend them (You must be 18 years and older). This year, I decided that I am going to go see the Heineken festival and why so many people speak about how amazing it is. I am not sure if the Heineken Festival has been held in GrandWest before, but this year, it was held in the Grand Arena in GrandWest Casino.

I arrived at GrandWest with my friend, Erin, who was as excited as I was to go to the Heineken Festival. Before the event, we arrived about an hour before the time, we got our arm bands and waited for a bit at the entrance door. Erin and I were delighted to have bought Golden Circle tickets (I have never been in Golden Circle before in my life), and that was a true blessing! There weren't much people at the door, but apparently people start coming through near to when the show started...and so they did.

The doors opened and Erin and I walked towards the golden circle area. Golden Circle was the only place where everyone stood, the general tickets were sitting. It was just different to see that people were sitting for a festival. I found a perfect spot right in front of the stage. Erin and I asked three people to keep our spots for us and we went to get something to drink while we waited. We walked back into the grand arena and started talking to the three people who kept our spots and also said to me that they told only told two people that this spot was taken. I learnt that the artists that are performing are only singing about 2 -3 songs of theirs and that is why the show is only 3 hours long. I have seen that F*kofpolisiekar hasn't performed at the Heineken festival and this is their first time performing. To be honest, I haven't seen most of all the artists that performed at the festival live before, I have only seen the AMA-zing ChianoSky perform about 2 months ago and Mi Casa when they performed at KDay.

The clock struck at 20:00pm and there was Richard Hardiman, a 2OceansVibe presenter, who welcomed everyone to the 2012 Heineken Symphonic Rocks Festival. He was really funny on stage and asked for everyone to not have their camera's flash as the performers will get blinded by all the flashes and that we also mustn't put our camera directly in front of us as the people behind you will then view a video from your phone/camera and won't be able to view the actual performance.

I couldn't believe that there was a 65 piece orchestra on stage as well. This is my very first time seeing a live orchestra on stage, now that was a truly amazing experience to see!
First up was aKING who were absolutely mind-blowing with their performance! Everyone cheered for them and shouted and screamed for them. aKING made a great welcome to the Heineken Festival. They were really good!

Left: aKING.
Right: Toya Delazy.

Next up was ChianoSky. Wow, but is she a fantastic singer! Somebody shouted "I love you!" and ChianoSky replied in saying "I love you to!". She graced the stage with her elegant voice singing "Sick Sick", which is her debut single off her debut album "Hungry". I heard quite a few people singing along with ChianoSky as I was singing as well. Her next song she sang was "Walking Away", which is one of my personal favourite's. Her performance was truly amazing and really fantastic to watch. ChianoSky's voice is really lovely and I just know she is going to go so far in life with her amazing talent that she has! She is really talented and I absolutely love her music!

ChianoSky performing "Sick Sick".

Next up was Zolani Mahola. Her voice was absolutely amazing to listen to as well. I was so happy that she sang "Doo Be Doo" and "I'd Like". Zolani really has a unique voice, a voice I haven't ever heard before. She sang really well and her performance was absolutely amazing to watch, everyone cheered for her and sang along to all her songs she performed.
The next music group that performed was Van Coke Kartel. They are an Afrikaans rock band, who really made the crowd go wild, especially a few people in the middle of the golden circle area. They were headbanging, hands in the air, singing along and most of all having a good time! The guitarists were also jumping up and down, playing their guitar, they were all really awesome!

Zolani Mahola and Van Coke Kartel performing live.

Francois Van Coke welcomed Toya Delazy and saying that they both own the same car, just a different colour. Toya Delazy performed her two most well-known songs, which are "Love is in the air" and "Pump it on". She really made the crowd jump up and down and dance to the beat of her music. She was really amazing to see live. I have never seen her live before and let me tell you, if  Toya Delazy is performing in your city, I suggest you go and watch her perform live! She is super talented and really has a great voice!
Next up was Tumi and the Volume. They were really good, I looked around at everyone in the crowd and I could see so many people with their hands in the air, singing along and cheering for this group. They were really a great experience watching live!
Next up to perform was Ard Matthews, in which Erin went crazy for! She screamed and shouted for Ard Matthews. His songs were really good live. He came to the side where we were standing and Erin couldn't stop waving at him (literally!). Throughout his performance, he was truly amazing! His songs were perfect and he is a really good singer!
After Ard Matthews, Richard Hardiman came on stage and said there will be a 20 minute interval, so I decided to walk around the Grand Arena for a little bit, then I came back to the stage and sat until the interval was over.

Top left: Ard Matthews.
Top right: 65 piece orchestra.
Bottom left and right: Van Coke Kartel.

After the interval, Macstanley came on stage and sang about 3 of their songs. I do remember seeing Andy Mack on Thursday that week as I went to go job shadow at KFM Studios that day and I saw him arrive and he went for an interview on 567 Cape Talk. Their performance was really an eye opener (I hope that made sense.). I have never seen Macstanley perform live before and let me tell you, Andy Mack has got one great voice on him. While Macstanley performed, there were white big balloons floating in the air which has the words "Heineken Symphonic Rocks Festival" written on them. In between their songs, Andy Mack interacted with the crowd of people and told us some interesting stories and more importantly, thanked the composer who sat endless nights, writing the music for this night. His name is John Walton. I remember Andy Mack saying that John Walton worked 6 months putting together all the music for the Heineken Festival this night. Oh! Did you know? Macstanley was originally named Flat Stanley? All that changed was the band's name.
Next up was the amazing F*kofpolisiekar. Just like Van Coke Kartel, everyone jumped up and down and the crowd screamed and went crazy! The only difference between Van Coke Kartel and F*kofpolisiekar is that F*kofpolisiekar were a little more mellow, soft rock than Van Coke Kartel, with the songs they sang. Francois Van Coke, in both Van Coke Kartel and F*kofpolisiekar, jumped up and down on stage and went crazy on stage, which made it even cooler!

The crowd at the Heineken Symphonic Rocks Festival.

Next up was Zahara. To be honest, I had no idea what most of the lyrics were in her music, but what I can tell you is that it was really lovely to listen to Zahara's voice live for the very first time. She interacted between her songs with all the people. She also sang a verse of one of her new songs in her upcoming album. She sang with no music, just her voice and it was absolutely lovely! The crowd really cheered for her.
Next up was Mi Casa. By now, my feet were getting sore as I was standing so long in shoes I am not used to wearing for such a long time. Mi Casa started off by singing "These streets", in which my friend was completely crazy about, clapping, cheering for Mi Casa. J-Something moved his waist from side to side and the crowd just went absolutely wild!
After Mi Casa's second song, I couldn't take standing on my feet anymore, so I decided to leave the Grand Arena, I never left GrandWest Casino, I just walked outside and went to go sit down somewhere. Erin tagged along with me. I couldn't stand standing on my feet for about 4 hours straight (excuse the pun.). After a while, I did hear Ed Roland from Collective Soul who was performing in the Grand Arena.

Top left: Macstanley.
Top right: Balloons in the air between the crowd.
Bottom left: Mi Casa.
Bottom right: Zahara.

After a while of sitting, resting my feet, I saw Toya Delazy and Zahara walk past and I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to finally meet them. It was a little upsetting to see so many people come up to them and just start talking all at the same time. I introduced myself to Toya Delazy and said to her that she is one talented singer and her performance was simply amazing to see for the very first time!

Me and Erin with Toya Delazy.

Me with Jedd Kossew and Francois Van Coke.

Erin with Jedd Kossew and Francois Van Coke.

After a while, I saw Francois Van Coke and Jedd Kossew from Van Coke Kartel. Erin was shy to introduce herself, so I told her to walk up to them and introduce herself. I walked after her and introduced myself and I said that their performance was really awesome! It truly was an awesome experience to see them for the first time performing live. I would definitely go watch them perform live again!

The Heineken Symphonic Rocks Festival came to an end, which all the artists went on stage and all of them said thank you for coming and the crowd cheered for every single one of them.
After all of the performers went off, we were allowed to meet the artists. I did ask to call ChianoSky if I can talk to her and the security guard called ChianoSky. All my friend wanted to meet was Ard Matthews, so she asked ChianoSky, but ChianoSky said that she couldn't find him. Erin and I got to chat to ChianoSky, saying how amazing she looks, her performance was truly an amazing experience to see and how super talented she is! ChianoSky is also super friendly to everyone, especially her fans! I am proud to say that I am her biggest Cape Town fan ever! It was also nice of her to compliment that she liked my shoes and that they looked lovely on me. ChianoSky's music kind of 'hooks' on you, once you start listening to her music, you get addicted to her songs. I am also very happy that ChianoSky signed her single "Home Sweet Home" for me. I love her message she wrote for me, it really means so much to me!

Me with ChianoSky.

Signed "Home Sweet Home" CD by ChianoSky.

Overall, the Heineken Symphonic Rocks Festival was really one of the best nights ever! This was my very first time to see a live orchestra right in front of my eyes. I was truly blessed to have met some of the artists, which I was really happy about. I enjoyed every single one of the performances from the artists on this night, they were truly AMA-zing!!!

I thank every single person who put this festival together,
I also thank John Walton and the 65 piece orchestra who performed absolutely wonderfully on this night,
Thank you to all for an absolute stunning night out!

Thank you to everyone who read my blog,
I really appreciate it!