Durban is gearing up for one of its most anticipated events of the calendar, its probably the biggest horse racing event on the continent and grows bigger every year. In preparation for this mammoth event of fashion, beauty and horse racing, Gateway, Theatre of Shopping is hosting it's annual Durban July Preview Fashion Show & Concert. Apart from the July, this is one event you want to be at!
Gateway, which is Durban's one stop mall for everything fashion related hosts a yearly preview fashion show which in the past has proven to be a massive success. The preview fashion show has their tenants displaying the latest trends and designs for people to purchase and look their best for the Vodacom Durban July. This years theme for the Vodacom Durban July is the The Colour of Magic and exhibitors are sure to bring out the best in colour and magic, Gateway has as well with confirmed hosts being local magician Mo Magic and Durban born beauty, Shashi Naidoo! Naidoo is no stranger to Gateway as she participated in last years Celeb Chef Showdown which was hosted at Gateway.
Apart from the Fashion, the big draw card is definitely the after party, with some of the biggest names in SA music invited to perform. This year see's the likes of Nasty C, Aewon Wolf, Kyle Deutsch, DJ Ready D, Tresor, Timo ODV, Ryki and Sketchy Bongo. Tickets for the concert are available now at webtickets for R80 or R100 at the venue. Make sure you get yours now before they sell out. It's sure to be the party to be at before the Vodacom Durban July.
It's one of the events I look forward to the most on the calendar, Whisky Live is back in KZN and has a new home, the Wavehouse at Gateway Theatre of Shopping. The event runs from the 1st of June till the 3rd and see's a host of distilleries showcasing their finest single malts and blends, one of which will be Three Ships Whisky, whom will have something special on their stand for visitors to savor.
When Three Ships launched its 15-Year Old Pinotage Cask Finish whisky end last year, consumers from around the world desperately tried to add this world's first whisky to their collection. Only a few bottles remain and those visiting the Whisky Live Celebrations at the Wavehouse in Gateway, Durban during the Whisky Live even will have the final chance to taste this extraordinary whisky.
The whisky is the oldest released to date from the Three Ships and is the first in the world to have been finished in a cask previously used to mature uniquely South African wine cultivar, Pinotage. The grain and malt components of the whisky were first matured separately in American casks before being finished for different periods in eight casks previously used for Pinotage. The win casks imparted the typical Pinotage varietal character of the red berry fruit and a slight earthiness to the whisky which softens the malt component and complements the sweetness of the grain.
At the Whisky Live Celebrations you can meet master distiller Andy Watts and join him in a tasting of the range of Three Ships Whisky, including the recently released Three Ships 10-Year Old Single Malt with a 2005 vintage statement.
Tickets are available at www.ticketpros.co.za starting from R180 each and include a tasting glass, 16 tasting vouchers and a bottle of Consol Still Water. The events start at 18:00 until 22:00 and with than 100 whiskies to taste its an absolute treat for any whisky-lover. For more information, visit www.whiskylive.co.za, email info@whiskylive.co,za or Follow the accounts on twitter @whiskyliveSA@ThreeShipsWhisky@TheWhiskyMaker
Its Hardwell week EDM fans! The number one DJ in the world will be touching down on our shores in the coming days with his first stop being Durban. His show at the Wavehouse in Gateway will be the first of three that form part of his #IAmHardwellTourSA. Last week we ran a competition for one lucky reader to win a set of double tickets to the concert, that winner is Nival Maharaj of Durban! We all cannot wait for Thursday so to get us into the grove, here is the Dutch masters latest offering featuing Matthew Koma.
Well do you want to or not? I have 2 tickets that I WANT to give away to his show at the Wavehouse in Durban on the 5th of December! The show forms part of his #IAmHardwellTourSA which has been well received in the countries he has visited so far. For some reason people are under the impression that he wont be at show in Durban and it will be a recording or live stream... well that's bullshit, I have confirmation that the Dutch legend will be here in the flesh, to send the crowd into ecstasy with his wicked mixes.
Want to win some tickets to see him? Well there is two ways to do this
Simply follow me on twitter and tweet me why you deserve the tickets and include the hash tag #IAmHardwellTourSA to the tweet
Share this post on Facebook, tag me Amith Gosai and use the hash tag #IAmHardwellTourSA
Once done, you and a friend could be partying the night away at the Wavehouse in Durban with the worlds best in EDM! Entries close on Friday, 29th November and the winner will be announced on Monday in the Monday Choon post.
Terms and conditions.
- Winners must be from or in Durban to collect tickets.
- Only one tweet per person will be regarded as an entry.
- Only one share per person on Facebook will be regarded as an entry.
- Entries close on Friday the 29th of November.
- The winner will be announced next Monday, 2nd of Dec on this blog.
- Winners must be prepared to party hard on the 5th at the Wavehouse!
As mentioned in the Monday Choon post, Hardwell is bringing his I AM HARDWELL world tour to South Africa in December, specifically Cape Town and Joburg. Electric Music, the guys who brought us big name DJ's such as Skrillex, Swedish House Mafia and Afrojack, to name a few are the people responsible for bringing one of the biggest names in EDM at the moment to our shores. Hardwell has rocked most of the big name festivals this year including UMF, Coachella, EDC and his radio show On Air is proving to be quite a hit in the podcast charts. In May he released his new hit which is a collaboration with Dyro "Never Say Goodbye" which was our featured choon on Monday and is still a massive favourite with many.
More details of the tour was released this week by Electric Music with shows confirmed for the 3 major cities, Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg. However Durban's event which will be held on Thursday the 5th of December will be different to that of CT and Jhb as it will not form part of his I AM HARDWELL tour production but will be a unique production done by himself. This is not the first time an artist has opted to do something different in Durban as in the past Deadmau5 chose to do an unwired set at the Wavehouse and I having attended both shows in Cape Town and Durban can confidently say that Durban's show was miles better than the one in CT. So fans can rest assure that the show at the Wavehouse is bound to be insane!
Here are more details of the event:
Limited Early bird tickets are on sale from Monday 12 August from Computicket and ticket prices are as follows:
General Access - R300
Thereafter, ticket prices will be:
General Access - R350
Spiced Vac VIP visa’s will gain you free entrance.
Firstly apologies for abandoning my blog for quite a while, with the mixture of work stress and holiday commitments it was difficult to do so. Anyway I'm back! and during that time so much has happened! So its time I filled you in! As you all know, after missing out on ASOT500, there was no way I was missing out on seeing Deadmau5 live in SA! I was so amped, I got tickets for 2 shows! Already promising a friend I'd take them to the Cape Town show, tickets were booked and on the plane I went to the land of the mountain! But before I start, let me show you what the guy did in London just a few days before he flew into SA. It was a promo for Nokia's new Lumia phone range and the location was at the Millbank tower along the river Thames. Words cannot describe the awesomeness...
If that didn't leave you speechless, then I don't know what will! Seeing that video just amped South African fans more and more to see his show. At a press conference held at St Eve's on Camps Bay, Deadmau5 told reporters that he can judge how good his show was by seeing the number of glow sticks left behind. Of course armed with such valuable information, it was off to buy glow sticks! Found a pack of 50 at the local China Mall, that should have been good enough. Now if you don't know, CT has a huge twitter population so finding the drinking hole everyone was meeting at before the show wasnt that difficult. While there I bumped into many twitter peeps, names @MrCPT@CapeTown_chick@Crystalita_xxx@thatWallace@yeswecrann@StephanieBe@StaceFace248@MishtotheD and many many more!
After filling our belly's with many of the liquids they had on offer, it was of to the CTICC! The venue of the concert, wasn't that easy though, had to walk back to Clock Tower, mission our way to the ICC and drive up 4 floors to park the car, then walk the whole damn ICC only to be told we have to enter from the outside... anyway we made it in, got some souvenirs, got some drinks and it was Deadmau5 time!
Soon as the clock strike 10pm, the curtains drop to unveil the cube! It was there that the legend DJ would mesmerise crowds for the rest of the night with his major hits. The cube itself comprises of 4 parts, the main podium which he operates from and 3 other pieces that are on the sides and 1 of which floats above him. All of which have LED out layer so with the lighting and various graphics being displayed, it made it one damn good visual spectacle!
There were some issues with the sound which cut out at times, I didn't really know as every time it did, he would come up onto the stage and sort of wave to us, so it seemed like it was part of the show until I heard after the concert that there was problems with the arcing of the cables. He himself wasn't please and made his feelings heard on twitter. The show itself was amazing but it wasn't his best and you could see with the problems he had, he couldn't really do what he wanted to do.
Soon as the clock struck 12, it was all over. Sad to see him leave but it was off to the after party at Opium Night Club. Most of the crowd from the show spilled over here as they allowed free entrance to anyone with an armband from the show. Partied the into the early hours of the morning with some of Cape Towns finest then it was off to the airport to catch my flight back to Durbs!
the cube
As luck would have it, I had a British Airways business class ticket and who was sitting a few rows in front of me? Deadmau5 himself! along with his entourage which included his girlfriend (HAWT!). The whole flight I couldn't contain my excitement, trying to get glimpses of him so as soon as we landed in Durban I ran to make contact with the master. By the tone of his voice, I could see he wasn't keen, and his t-shirt saying "no pictures" was there to confirm it. Well I cant blame the guy, lack of sleep and the kak chow on the plane does get to one. Eventually managed to get a pic of him as there were some fans waiting at the arrivals terminal.
Headed home from the airport, freshened up and it was off to Gateway for Deadmau5 unhooked! Met up with the Gorilla media crew at the offices at the Wavehouse for some predrinks and brag about the past days events then it was time to see the legend take the stage again. He didn't have the cube for this show and it was indeed much smaller but the venue was outdoors and as weather gods would have it in Durban, it was raining. Never the less, the Durban crowd partied the night away getting soaked in the process! Deadmau5 was on fire, his show in CT was more of a crowd pleaser with him sticking to the favourites and hardly much mixing, in Durban it was the total opposite. The guy was in a trance and there isn't any other way to describe it as him going "off".
wavehouse
The show was insane! so much so he played 30 minutes more than allocated, he loved it! He even tweeted that he didn't want to stop because he was having so much fun but due to the time restrictions of the venue he had to eventually come off stage. The main hit for both shows was of course the monster tune "strobe". It sent the crowds are both venues into pandemonium. After witnessing 2 very different shows I must admit, this guy seriously deserves the praises he gets. He is a machine and I'd pay to see him again and again. 2 Cities, 2 Shows, 1 deadmau5, Priceless experience.
