As I am typing this I am busy pumping “for Now we are young” – the album of a band called Beach Party. You might not have heard of them, and neither had I until two weeks ago, but they were part of the wicked and massively successful 5 Gum Experience in Cape Town on Saturday night featuring The Kooks.
I tried to think of things that were poorly done or just made the event unenjoyable and I had to stretch my imagination to come up with only one thing. ONE THING for a venue with a good few thousand peeps? Job flipping well done.
The whole thing was so smoothly organized you felt like you were just rolling along with the tide. The buses transporting you to the event were on time and efficiently organized that the queue vanished chop-chop.
Once at the venue, you were searched and tickets checked without any hassle. There was a big scary man barking orders making sure no one stepped out of line and that you got inside before you even had an idea of where the hell you were.
The venue was traditionally kept secret right up until you arrived and they did a good job of not letting it slip; Salt River Film Studios being the lucky destination and what a sweet venue it was!
From there, there wasn’t a single hitch and the place was pumping! No one goes for the opening acts, but boy did Beach Party, Haasbroek & December Streets get some love! People were jamming their faces off and jolling along with the brilliant local acts with most of the crowd singing along word for word!
The local acts were top class and really took me by surprise that they were just that good live, but the Kooks stepped things up another notch and rocked the house. The tunes kept flowing with the crowd loving every minute of it. Peeps were fighting to climb things to get a glimpse and get their jol on properly. If you had someone’s shoulders to go on, it seemed you were on them without hesitation. The crowd was amazing and the Kooks seemed to love it and were feeding off it. The energy was great and you could see the whole place was loving it – I don’t think anyone wanted it to end!
Seriously, it was a fantastic event which was so well organized that Jacob might need to look over his shoulder. I can’t have enough praise for the whole thing. From how well the activation was initially handled, to how 5Gum kept everyone in the loop with every detail via social media, to how awesome the venue was and how well it was handled. There was loads of space, huuuuge bar with enough service, the sound was good, and there were loads of toilets. Oh ja, and the flipping Kooks were playing!?
I give this a solid 10/10 and have been playing the Kooks and Beach Party on repeat this morning! 5 Gum got the name spot on – it really was an Experience.
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