The Colour Festival Durban

Sure looks colourful!

Saturday the 6th April saw the first Colour Festival to be held in Durban after recent success in Jo'burg and Cape Town. Now before everyone gets all up in arms and tells me that the Holi Fest has been around for decades ... I know. I said that this is the first, of many, Colour Festival's to hit Durban. The promoters of this event tout it as an electronic dance party which incorporates the coloured powders from the original Holi Festival in India combined with a "stellar line-up of local and international deejays". 

LEFT: Before Colour Fest
RIGHT: At Colour Fest.

Crowds.

Now forgive me for my negativity so early on, but I don’t recall any international DJ’s. However, I will give the organisers the benefit of the doubt because they were probably referring to the Cape Town and Jo’burg venues. The music was good and the general atmosphere was just incredible. I had so many people tell me that they absolutely loved the festival and they loved the concept. I think that it is really exciting for Durban to hold these kinds of events.

So what did I think? Not that it makes a difference, but here is my tale about this colourful event.

The queue at the entrance.

My friends and I got to the Wavehouse, Gateway at around 3 pm. On the way in I passed our official photographer for the newspaper who had earlier been so eager to do the event. He was leaving and had only two words for me ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’. Now when shit gets biblical you know that you are at the right kind of party.

Ronnie ends this video in an awkward way ...

I was so grateful for my media pass because the line for the entrance was crazy. Despite the thousands of people, it only really took ten minutes for my friends to enter the event. Once we got inside we traded our tickets for two packets of colour powder. This was when I got my first powder experience. What nobody told us - I guess because it is common sense - is that the stuff gets everywhere. My first dust cloud entered my mouth and nostrils. I was left coughing and spluttering - begging for mercy. Just as I took my second breath another cloud hit me. Thank god for my sunnies or I would have been blind as well.

You have to watch this ...

I was a bit annoyed with the powder packet people because they were not allowing people with R190 tickets to get any powder,  although their ticket stated they should get two packets each. Luckily my friends stood firm and insisted they get their powder. Forty minutes later we were off to the bar. Honestly I lost my shit. The problem with using the Wavehouse as a venue is that it actually does not have enough facilities. This is not just my opinion. There were not enough bar facilities and not nearly enough bathrooms. It took over an hour to get drinks at the bar. Not just because the bar was too small to serve the large crowd, but also because the bar kept running out of stock. We all just stood and waited for more stock to be brought in. Very sad. I had to be a snob and get us all drinks from VIP because it was the only properly run bar. 

Always with the mouth open -
No wonder I  am still coughing up purple.

As for the bathrooms, you know us girls and our bladders. After eventually buying our buckets we all needed to pee. Unfortunately for us we had to leave the Wavehouse and actually go into Gateway to use the bathroom. The whole of Colour Fest was doing the same because nobody wanted to wait in an hour-long queue. At one stage in the night my friend and I went to the men’s bathroom because we couldn’t wait any longer. Only to find ourselves ankle-deep in what we now know was urine. Desperate times... Also while I am on this tangent, the Colour fest website promised showers to rinse ourselves off ... I guess there was one in the heavily populated, unbearably overcrowded bathroom.

This is the only pic you will ever see of me on the loo.
As vulgar as it is, I think that it illustrates a point.

 I did have an amazing time despite all my whining. I think this is going to be a regular festival on Durban’s calendar and I will return. I love to dance and I loved getting colourful. Colour Fest Durban was over all too soon. But not our night...

Amy and I had got separated from our herd. So we decided to taxi back to Umhlanga, get some pizza, clean the powder from our nooks and crannies and head out to XS nightclub. We ended up sitting on the grass at Engen waiting for our taxi for ages – it seemed to be the common story for the night. So - and this is incredibly naughty of us, do not do this ever - we ended up asking some fellow Colour Fest revellers for a ride. Not the smartest thing I have ever done. Their car had a strange curtain up which separated the front of the car from the back. We told them we were going to Cotton Fields and as soon as they drove off we ran back to our hotel room at The Oysters.

I spent the rest of my night chatting to my good friend Jay Tweek as well as arguing with the owner of FITS about the article I wrote about him.

What an awesome weekend. I could not have had a better time if I tried. To everyone else who went to Colour Fest Durban, makeup remover is the only way to get that purple out of your pores ... it’s a pleasure!

The next morning we cured our hangovers with a Big Daddy beer at Hooters.