My first “Innibos Musiekfees” Experience

How does one react when you're the only english girl thrown into the deep end of a pool filled with thousands and thousands of afrikaans-speaking people in a town called Nelspruit, 8 hrs drive from home?! Well, you either sink or swim I guess;) So I brushed up on my afrikaans, packed my bags (again) and drove 8 hrs with my manager, Alan, sleeping next to me;) to Nelspruit. It's not the first time I've been there. But this is the first time I was singing at a totally afrikaans festival. In fact, they weren't keen to have me because I was english. It took a lot of nagging on Alan's part and we all know how good he is at that… So Innibos had no choice, at the end of the day, but to book me! Wednesday was taken up by the Pledge a Million Soccerballs at Gateway, Durban with ECR and Supersport which meant that we had to drive on Thursday which was also the day of my first show. I was up at 4am to pack and get myself ready to leave by 6am. This meant a very tired me, performing on the main stage that was big enough to fit about 50 of me, for loads of people. Needless to say I was very tired and it was all rather overwhelming. However, I am not one to shy away from a challenge and so I raced to my bed and breakfast, showered, did my makeup, blow-dryed the hair, put on my heels and headed for the showgrounds. Thanks to fabulous sound on stage, my voice held out and it was a very successful show. It is always scary singing my afrikaans song for an audience for the first time and I was very aware of how english my accent was when I tried to speak afrikaans. I was also aware of how hard it had been to get into that festival because I was english-speaking. But I started the show by telling the audience I had a secret to tell them…That I wasn't afrikaans! And that was the ice-breaker. After that they were willing to put up with my bad grammar and limited vocabulary. They even seemed to enjoy my afrikaans song and we sold quite a few CDs. The following day I had a gap so I made my way to the local virgin active, something I always do when on tour. It helps me to focus and I feel better maintaining a normal routine when I'm on tour. It ensures that my life doesn't feel so upside down! That afternoon I had a show in the smirnoff/windhoek tent which was a bit of a tough one but we still sold CD's. After that I popped in at Look and Listen to meet up with a friend, Anthony, who I had met on my previous tour in Nelspruit. He works there and has made sure that Look and Listen, Nelspruit are very supportive of my music which I am very grateful for. Then we popped into Ola Milky Lane to say hi to the owner. I have recently added them to my list of sponsors and they have printed me posters and autograph cards. We went to drop off a poster and in the interim, sold several CD's to the owner and some customers! This a regular occurance as Alan has a box of my CD's permanently attached to his person and woe betide anyone who even glances in his direction. They WILL be sold a CD;) Anyway, it was a long, exhausting day and I was happy to get back to my bed and breakfast where I ate dinner, packed and fell into bed. The following day was an early morning due to a radio interview so I was up at 6:30 to get myself ready and pack the car so we could leave directly after my show at 12pm. I had a radio interview on Radio Laeveld at 9:15am which was really nice! It was a very casual, relaxed interview and the best part was I found out that my new afrikaans song, As, is currently on their top 20 chart which is just the most exciting news for me because it is an exclusively afrikaans radio station and I am english! I was there for quite a while and Alan once again sold CD's while I was being interviewed! My show was once again in the smirnoff tent, at 12pm and it went down really well. The audience was very responsive. It was a great way to end off the festival for me. We had a quick lunch and were on the road by 2pm. A stop in Ermelo for petrol resulted in Alan selling 11 cds and a half hour delay which meant a later arrival home and we finally limped into Durban, exhausted, at 10pm. We thoroughly enjoyed this festival. I have never been to a more well-organised festival in my life! The average amount of people that attended the festival per day was probably around 10 000 to 15 000 people, at times much more. The support for local afrikaans artists is absolutely unbelievable and to organise crowds of people like that, as well as 100s of artists, is an amazing accomplishment and everything ran so smoothly. I hope that I get invited back again next year! To read up more about it and to get an idea of the experience, check out their website: www.innibos.co.za You will be impressed! Anyway, until we meet again, keep living the music! Mel