Swaziland Bushfire International Music Festival!

Why hello! I hope everyone had a GREAT weekend! I did not have internet access (or electricity, actually…) for most of the weekend so I am REALLY behind on email/blogging/comments/etc. just in time to leave again for almost two weeks, but I just want to say thank you SO MUCH for all the kind comments on my birthday post I did indeed feel special! Thanks! 

I am leaving for the World Cup TOMORROW (!!!) and wanted to finish my last two Swaziland updates before then but I am not sure if I will get to both… but here comes part three! If you want to check out the first two parts (swaziland scenery and pictures of animals, and then the documentation of our road trip to swazi) please do! 

—– 

What brought us to Swazi in the first place was the Bushfire Festival, a music fest (think Africa´s Coachella or Bonaroo) hosted at Malandela´s House on Fire venue right near/in Milwane Nature Reserve. The music and entertainment started on Friday night and I unfortunately did not bring my camera, but Saturday was more or less well documented! 

We arrived at the venue bright and early (around ten). So early, in fact, that they did not even let us in! Apparently people had snuck in and slept there or something so they were kicking everyone out… whatever. We live in Africa, we are patient people by necessity! 

The venue was pretty awesome. I am pretty sure they just let a bunch of random artists loose to create magic. And that is exactly what it looks like. A little random, some stuff doesn´t quite fit, but really cool nonetheless. 

This bench was the Love Station. I did not feel too comfortable sitting on it. 

 Definitely had that mandatory amount of hippy-dippy that is always present at music festivals. Check out the cellphone charging area… you could sit on pillowy chairs and sip tea while your cell is charged on purely clean energy! Love this. 

There was one main indoor stage which hosted a lot of the smaller bands and theater, dance, and musical performances. 

And a main stage outside for the big bands! We got to see the South African Grammy winners (best rock band, best alternative band, etc.) the first two nights… of course, none of us knew them, but being in a HUGE crowd of people all singing in unison is always a wonderful experience… very uniting. Even if you are confused as to why the rock band members have painted tears on their faces with makeup… 

The first event on Saturday morning was a two-man theater performance called Man Up A Tree or something right along those lines. It was funny and entertaining but also with a strong underlying message about the perils of development, negative effects that Africans know well. The main example given was destroying the forest to make room for buildings, and encouraging people to plant trees. Relevant message ANYWHERE in the world! 

Again, like at any good music festival, there was (relatively) cheap beer. And it should indeed be consumed at 10am. Abby and Liz were digging it. 

The main reason we arrived right as the gates opened was to guarantee a chance to participate with The Silent Conductor! This dude is amazing. Basically, they pass out instruments to the audience and he “conducts” us to make beautiful music together. For the first part, PVC pipes-cum-whistles were distributed (different lengths, color-coded, meant different tones) and by pointing at each color in certain patterns, we (along with the band…) performed a pretty beautiful rendition of Stand by Me. 

I took a little video of it for the blog (because as you can imagine, me explaining this is about 5% as cool as SEEING it) but it won´t upload! I should not be surprised or disappointed but, I just really wish I could share it with you all  

Anyway, the best part was yet to come. DRUMS!!! 300 were distributed to the audience.

I should mention that in a former life I was probably the drummer of a really bad ass rock band. I LOVE drumming. One of my definitely not secret talents is being able to beat almost every song on Rock Band/Rock Band 2/Beatles Rock Band on Expert. But only on the drums. I am a goddess of rhythm. 

After rocking it out hardcore (I need to buy myself one of those drums immediately upon returning home…) it was time to explore the crafts tent. Oh no. Money suck! But luckily in Africa you can empty your wallet and not feel too bad about it, seeing as almost everything goes to support really good causes (and is reasonably priced). 

One of the most AMAZING things I saw in the crafts tent was this very Operation Beautiful clothing company! They sold t shirts and a variety of little bags and things, but check out this mirror they had for people to model the products. The mirror was surrounded by messages such as “dreams do come true,” “I am beautiful,”I live in the now,” “I forgive myself.” I REALLY wanted to add an Operation Beautiful note to the mirror but I didn´t have any paper! Tragic!!! But this was basically Operation Beautiful in Africa anyways. Their main t-shirt had what appeared to be a weird squiggle print on it but when you looked in the mirror, you read “I CREATE MY OWN REALITY.” Pretty awesome! 

There was always SOMETHING going on at the venue. We got to see several different traditional Swazi dance troupes which was a treat. Love African dance. It is funny, I took dance for YEARS and always felt MOST confident on the dance floor, but on this continent I feel like the most incapable klutz! As is often the case, the stereotypes are true: Africans can SHAKE IT. They often giggle at us awkward foreign girls, but love that we try nonetheless. 

Okay, I have mentioned the music, the dancing, the venue… what else could people reading my blog possibly want to hear about? Oh yeah, probably food. Okay so. I was really looking forward to the festival because I had heard there were a ton of different options and I was hoping to get to try some crazy African dishes or at least some stuff with more veggies! It was a bit limited but we still did just fine. My favorite stand (pictured here) had DONUTS and MUFFINS and HOT COCOA. They really were not super high quality or anything, but, NOWHERE sells donuts or muffins in the Moz! The cocoa was basically one spoon of cheap hot chocolate powder (instead of the recommended three) floating on top of some hot water, but I bought it a dozen times because IT WAS FREEZING. Seriously. I could not sleep at night because it was so cold. Africa has made me a WIMP!

I enjoyed one sprinkle donut (don´t sprinkles make EVERYTHING better?) and cocoa for a second breakfast on Saturday while waiting to get my drum on, and two small “marble” muffins at other points over the weekend. Totally delicious. Man, I miss baked goods. 

In terms of “real” food, the hot dogs were incredibly popular and looked delicious. Everyone got these… 

Except me; while I liked the idea of a hot dog, there was a “vegetarian pita” option and I figured I HAD to try that! A VEGGIE PITA! Um. Regrettable. If anyone wants to tell me what this fake meat substance is, I would appreciate it, because I sure as heck have no idea! 

The pizza got some rave reviews, and smelled delicious. But I was way too impatient to wait for it. I take what I said earlier about being patient. I lied. 

Corn was grilling throughout the day… 

And popcorn was popping! For those of you who don´t know, I LOVE POPCORN. I will go to the movie theater in Maputo just to buy popcorn. Plus, it was CHEAP. I think I had four baggies over the weekend! 

Brought food from outside, too. We stopped at Shoprite in Manzini and I bought a box of Multi-grain Cheerios. Real cereal is a luxury, and that box did NOT even make it 48 hours! Cheerios, I OWN YOU. 

Probably the biggest tragedy of the weekend was when I was preparing oats and coffee in the morning, MY SPORK BROKE!!! I have (had?) this cute green spork that I got from REI over Christmas (It says Light My Fire on it… how can it not be awesome?) that I take (took?) EVERYWHERE when I am traveling. Reached in for a scoop of PB and it broke in half! A moment of silence for my spork. You have been good to me. 

Besides sporks breaking, this day was an AMAZING time. We spent the night listening to Afro-jazz bands, including super-popular pop group Freshly Ground (check them out on iTunes, they are WONDERFUL) as well as a new South African singer named Lira who I am pretty sure ALL of us (men and women included) fell head over heels in love with. So soulful, sexy, and sung about being comfortable in YOUR skin. Loved her. 

What a day! If anyone has the opportunity to go Swaziland or Africa in general, try to make it to Bushfire. I know that sounds silly, but you should all go  

I will be back as soon as I can with my final Swazi recap! Thanks for reading! 

Have you ever been to a music festival? What is the BEST concert you have ever seen?

SIMILAR POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE . . .

• End of Bushfire and Back to Reality slash Mozambique
• Road Trip: Swaziland
• Sunday Musings and Swazi Scenery!