Bridget Ndlovu-Jones' Blog

The festival began with a handbag search....men this way, women that way. I'm never sure of the point of handbag only searches - no metal detector, no body search, just handbags!?

Anyway, we got in and caught the tail end of Simphiwe Dana. Great South African jazz-ish artist - haunting voice. She's a little stiff, but good nonetheless.

Then, an hour and a couple of beers later, came EARTH, WIND and FIRE!!! They had decided to kick off there 40th Anniversary world tour in SA! And man they ROCKED it belting out classics like Boogie Wonderland, Fantasy, Let's Groove Tonight and lots lots more !!! What a treat! Out they came looking like...errm... they'd just stepped out of the 70s! One had on a shiny white suit which had white tassles down the length of a pair of very snug trousers. Their faces were weirdly tight, shiny and plump! A little knife job methinks. But once I got passed the frozen wrinkless smiles I had a blast! Man can Philip Bailey sing. The range puts Mariah Carey to shame. Seriously.

They performed nonstop for just under 2 hours and I, along with the several thousand others, was sweating from the all the dancing, jumping, arm waving -except for the obvious tourist right in front of us who had on a large back pack, nodded her head in relative time to the music and then at one point (during Fantasy I think) took out and started munching on a ham sandwich!

Dripping sweat we went to another of the 5 stages to watch Liquid Deep! I think they're South African. Recognised one song - 'Will you be my Fairy Tale'. Great music. The lead singer, though very talented (and knew it), was a bit too in to himself. He introduced himself, in a funny American accent, as 'just Ayo'!! Hmm... Is it just me or doesn't that sound Nigerian?

Anyway, after about 5 songs and with aching thighs, sore knees and throbbing heels - it was time to move on to the next stage and catch Youssou N'Dour! Fan-bloody-tastic! Aching forgotten, we threw ourselves into the Senegalese rhythm. Wow!

A vigorous hour later - at about 1:30am - we surrendered and limped back to the car!

I heard later that 15 000 people came and I'm sure enjoyed themselves as much as we did. I love Cape Town!

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