Bringing the Fire: Bushfire 2019

          

Campsite!

The road was clogged with cars. Stalls selling hot maize packets had sprung up around the entrance to the festival, and taxi drivers leant out the windows yelling at each other. Four of us were crammed into a small cab with our camping supplies and grocery bags. The Bushfire Music Festival is one of the largest music festivals in Southern Africa and it attracts an estimated 20,000 people each year over its three-day runtime. It’s located at an eclectic, sprawling venue called House on Fire – a crazy mix-match of tiki torches, intimate amphitheatres, extensive fields, and secluded bars in the forest. Over the week preceding the festival, construction workers built fences and erected market places and stages over the grounds, preparing for the deluge of festival-goers.

A number of my friends and I were camping at the venue, and it was a one and half hour mess trying to find our campsite. First, our taxi dropped us at the main entrance with all our bags, where we were informed we had to walk back to the camping entrance to get our festival bracelets. At the camping entrance, we were sent to the information tent across the road. There, they had issues validating some of our tickets, and their machines died. Once we made it into the campsite, it was a ten minute or so walk to where we would pitch our tents. At this point it was dark.

At first, Bushfire seemed an unnavigable mess, and I was close to crawling into my tent with a plate of kimchi fried rice from the Korean food stall. But once the tents were pitched, and once I’d found the slightly dodgy campsite bathrooms, I was ready to brave the main festival area.

One of my favourite things about Bushfire was the unique demographics. I’d been a bit nervous in the days leading up to the festival – many of the descriptions from second year students seemed to be of a three-day rager where every second person was trying to spike your drink and theft ran rampant. While it wasn’t quite as tame as the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, there were still tons of families with young kids, older adults chilling in the shaded areas, and teenagers who were holding Appletisers rather than beers.

That’s not to say there weren’t some wild parts – once the sun went down, the bar tents filled, and unlike many North American music festivals, there were no designated drinking areas. I liked Bushfire because it seemed like the festival was what you made of it – some people definitely spent the weekend in an alcohol fueled haze, while others spent it scouting the three stages for good acts.

I tried to aim for a good memory – even though I’m a teenage spending a weekend with my friends in a country that doesn’t ID and has ridiculously cheap drinks, and my parents say I’m too responsible sometimes so I’ve been trying to be a little wilder, I enjoyed the good food and good music with a clear head. 

Bushfire was a fabulous experience. My phone died on the morning of the second day, my hair was greasy and gross, and I pretty much relied on make-up wipes rather than running water. I didn’t have a sleeping mat, I was freezing cold, and I kept misplacing my friends in the crowd. But I also heard an amazing Nigerian-French artist called Asa, I got to eat some really excellent curry, and I learned a lot about my classmates through the combined effect of a weekend spent together.

I’m definitely going back next year, but I think I’ll bring a sleeping mat.