Rhodes – South Africa’s Engine Room. The Great Field Party – the coal.
(Feature story on Rhodes University's Great Field Party)
By Jason Jonathan Joseph

When describing Rhodes Anele Mdoda, 5fm DJ and MC for the Great Field party that took place on Friday the 18th of February , came up with this analogy: “It's like, you know on the Titanic, think about it, you know you got this big ship - let's forget about the fact that it sank - you've got this big ship and that's all you see, the people on top with their dresses and everything, but you go fourteen floors down and it's where the engine is, where they are putting the coal into the steam engine and people working. Everyone sleeps on top, that's Jo’burg on top ... but the little towns on the outside (like Grahamstown), outside Jo’burg ... that is where the coal is going into the fire, churning everything, and churning everything. I respect that."

And indeed the Great Field Party was churning and on fire! There were local Grahamstown band – Southern Gypsy Queen, Shackle and Bones, 13th floor – all on the same stage with big name acts like Liquideep, DJ Lulo Café and CrashCarBurn.

Speaking to CrashCarBurn, on their second single, the title track of the album - Long Live Tonight - at the time of the interview, and with the third single, More Than this, now on radio, were really excited to play their first time in Rhodes. “Somehow Grahamstown has eluded us,” says Garth Barnes, the lead singer of the band, “but we are pretty excited to play for students”. After Grahamstown the band had been set to hit Cape Town, and then Singapore for the Mosiac festival. “There is a whole lot of international artists and they are trying to expose the Singapore locals to different music,” suspects Fabian Sing the group’s guitarist. And with their brand of music that they describe as ‘power pop’ Brendan Barnes the drummer (or Bugsy as he affectionately prefers to be called) said that “it is somewhere between pop and rock, slightly more powerful than pop.”

Indeed Rhodes was privy to a great mix of all sorts of power music from both residential Grahamstown acts to 'big star' acts from Johannesburg. Dave Glover, vocalist and guitarist for the local band Shackle & Bones, added that the crowd really adjusted to them “and got down with us”, because as Glover said, “everyone was here to have a good time.” They also had a great time on stage. “It's a symbiotic relationship” says Shackle & Bones drummer Alex Williamson, “you can put as much energy in it as you want to, but if your not getting that energy back from the crowds ... but if you start jamming and the crowd starts jamming, you jam more ... and it just exponentially grows.”

Anele praised the organisers of the event and noted that “every music genre is catered for.” She went on to compare the event to the Glasglow music festival, (adding how her favourite artist Beyoncé would be playing there this year) and then adding that this event is the start of such things, Grahamstown and this event is “like a little Glasglow” she said.

The event did have her fair share of criticism though; the event started 2 hours after schedule, many of the performances got cut short. Local band Shackle & Bones found the organisation of the whole event a little poor, but they did feel the SRC sorted them out really well with supper and drinks, etc, but they all echoed that they would have traded it all more time on stage.

Liquideep echoed those sentiments by commenting that “this event, the whole mixture, is (such an) inspiring scene to be part of. So we need a lot of stuff like this to happen”. Ryzor of Liquideep further added that “it happens most outside of Jo’burg, the demand is there, we just need a whole lot of backing… tell the Red Bulls we don’t want drinks, we want money (to put on more events like this),” Ryzor says as he gestures to the cans of Red Bull before them.

On the eclectic vibe of Rhodes, Lulu Café said: “You hardly see such a set up in Jo’burg where it is just white people, black people hanging out,” he said. “Chilling,” echoed Ziyon, the other half Liquideep. Lulo Café went on: “There is like a culture here everybody is just doing there thing; there's no white, there's no black. I was quite amazed by that. Even Anele commented that “the kids look like they jam together all of the time. This is just normal to you.” In parting Anele added that “If you could take the country and just make it a bigger scale of what Rhodes is right now – life would be a party, and we wouldn’t get any work done but – we would be happy”

The general consensus for Grahamstown and the event was pretty much a raving review – thanks to the students – and Anele was thoroughly enthrilled by Rhodes. And she said she would actually love a t-shirt so she can say ‘been there, done that’. We ARE being here, DOING that. One day we will be able to say, ‘been to Rhodes, done the Great Field party, and every other opportunity Rhodes has sent our way, and we’ll get that degree.