I love to
party. I love Griet, an event and artist management company that operates in
South Africa. I also love Griet parties. My love for Griet parties stems from numerous events they have assisted in, Grietfest and the I <* Halloween Converse Block Party so when
I heard that Griet was turning 3 I knew I was in for a treat because this party
would either match or surpass it’s predecessors because they were hosting it with Dont Party. When Griet made their birthday
announcement on twitter (follow griet_sa) I made sure that I was going to be available
to head to !Arcade Empire on the 25th of November. I subsequently
missed out on two 21sts and a possible trip to Cape Town but I knew I had to be
here for this party.
Birthdays are
always something I’ve looked forward to celebrating. I enjoy getting presents I actually like and even when I was a kid I had an unusual fondness of birthday parties (something to do with deflating jumping castles and candles). For me birthday parties have evolved from celebrations that consisted of sugar drunkness, clowns, party
tricks, and toys to drinking until you forget your age, loud music and partying
until the early hours of the morning. If you’re unlucky and nobody loves you
enough to party with you then you’ll get a birthday meal. Now because Griet
ranks high up on the list of awesome things* they managed to combine the fun
birthday things and even threw in a few meal stands to get your dinner if you
really wanted one.
Try visualise
with me, even though your imagination will not come close to what I saw. Griet
turned !Arcade Empire’s huge tree-covered, gravel stoned parking lot into a
carnival scene that had a wicked atmosphere. You were immediately aware
that shit was going to go down when you saw the huge luminescent clown
welcoming board.
Now Grietland
itself was amazing but let me get started on the music. I arrived at 10pm, so
at that point I had missed Oliver Twisted and Liver’s first set. I walked in on
Yesterday’s Pupil while he was amping the crowds. He has a weird sound. I can’t
really describe it, but he really is something to watch, especially when you
realise that he sings all of the songs himself. Then Liver came on and things started to get crazy. He is remarkable at what he does and the beats were insane. His set was
really good and had a lot of stuff I didn’t recognise so it’s good that he’s
producing new stuff. I just think he should come do more sets here in Gauteng and ditch Cape Town. When DirtyLoud took over from Liver I thought the crowd
was maxing on the crazy levels. I was wrong, and I was also in the front. I believe I got punched in the kidney and the term “electro moshing" is appropriate
to describe what was going on. I have never had to fight so hard to stay in the front, but I enjoyed every second of it. At that moment I understood why there was an ambulance outside the venue.
F.O.O.L smashed it
up straight afterward and at this point I was dancing a safer distance away. I
stayed for a bit of RudeOne and then had to call it a night. I went home exhausted, exhilarated
and sore. It was quite an evening, quite a wild, dream-like evening. If you're reading this article and smiling then I know that you know the madness I am writing about else you should be drowning in this deep pit of regret. The point of this story kids, "Don't fucking miss Griet parties."
*Other things
on this list include passing a module you thought you were going to fail and
hearing an intense break in an electro song (one that is so epic it makes you
smile).
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| Dirtyloud (Brazil) |
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| F.O.O.L (Sweden) |
