Ultra SA 2026 - Artist Line Up

Big news for all ultranauts dropped yesterday with Ultra SA giving us the full artist line-up for this years event taking place on the 25th of April in Johannesburg and the 26th of April in Cape Town. Unlike previous years where we had a phased artist announcement, this year they decided to just drop the entire line-up which in my opinion is better rather than playing the waiting game to see if your fav's are coming. 

The international mainstage headliners did not disappoint with sets from Afrojack playing back-to-back with R3hab, Axwell, DJ Snake whom all have played in the country before but making his debut and being the main headline act is John Summit. We're a big fan of what John has been doing and we can guarantee you he will be bringing that energy to the SA crowds come April. 

Resistance stage is back with Dennis Ferrer and SA's very on Shimza who's been creating "fire" on dance floors across the world headling that. Loads of support artists for the event is made up with some of the best local acts, such as Dean Fuel, Aidin Caye, Liquideep, Timo ODV, DJ Kent, Baby Whitz and many more. Tickets are still availabe at www.ultrasouthafrica.com 

Monday Choon: NLW - To The Light

 

Afrojack has released a new alias in which he is releasing music that's going back to his roots of his classic sounds. This will no doubt excite many of his dedicated fan base as that is the type of music that made them fall in love with him. NLW will feature high-octane, energy starting soundscapes but will also be partnering with other DJ's like R3HAB and others. The first track "To The Light" is that Afrojack high octane techno that we're used to and hits all the right notes with electric build ups and killer drops. 

Monday Choon: Afroki - Everything You Do (ft. Aviella)

Afroki see's the collaboration between two heavy weight DJ's and Producers in the EDM world. Dutch DJ Afrojack teams up with American DJ Steve Aoki to form the formidable Afroki. Making their on stage debut at EDC Orlando last November, South African audiences got a taste of it a couple of weeks ago at Ultra South Africa. The high energy set with bespoke tracks combining the best of both styles proves to be a festival winner. Their track "Everything You Do" encapsulates that, with a mixture of trance, house and big room techno sound. The song features the vocals of Aviella that transitions well with the production, the bass line has a progression through out the track from the first part to the second part and not repetitive like you'd normally be used to on most tracks. I thought this was brilliantly done and gives the song a better sound. It's the first of what will be many from the duo, one which I'm looking forward to seeing what they have up their sleeves for the future. 

ULTRA SA 2024 - Phase 1 Line up

 

ULTRA South Africa this morning released their phase one line-up for next years festival. The biggest dance music festival just got bigger with some major head lining acts confirmed for 2024. Dutch DJ Afrojack returns to the stages of Ultra SA, the last time present he had the crowds jumping with his classics and live set mashups and remixes. Steve Aoki also returns and be sure to be standing front line if you want to get caked by man himself. Ultra is bringing the big room sound back with the addition of W&W who are undoubtedly one of the hottest acts at the moment, the energy these two have on stage and the ability to get the crowd going is remarkable. A first time appearance at Ultra South Africa for Paraguayan DJ Vintage Culture and another return of see's Skrillex coming back to the country, he's a man who has re-inspired his sound and has been making major waves world over with his collaborations, mainly with Fred Again and Four Tet, definitely not going to be missing his high energy set next year. 

Support acts include Major League and Shimza, with more to be announced in the Phase 2 line-up which is due to drop soon. 

Ultra South Africa 2020 - Set Times

Just 2 more sleeps till Ultra South Africa 2020 kicks off in Cape Town at the Ostrich Farm followed by the Johannesburg leg at Ultra. Many Ultranauts cannot wait for this weekends events and probably itching to see their favourite artists, the best way to make sure you don't miss any is to take note of the official set times and plan your time at Ultra SA with the official App! It's been the saving grace for many over the years and if you are attending, it's the best thing to have! You can schedule the DJ's sets you want to see so you can plan in advance to make sure you make the most out of your Ultra experience.

Download the app: ultrasouthafrica.com/app

Cape Town

Johannesburg

Ultra South Africa 2020 - Phase 1 Line Up Announced!

In case you missed it yesterday, Ultra South Africa dropped their phase one artist line-up announcing some big name headliners to grace the 2020 event!  Ultra SA 2020 see's the return of some greats and the first time appearances of some new international acts, returning to our shores are DJ Snake, Afrojack and Dash Berlin. Making his first Ultra SA appearance none other than the time-traveling DJ global superstar Steve Aoki! Steve is no stranger to South Africa having toured the country before, his performances were high energy and full of entertainment with some lucky fans getting their face smashed with some cake. Aoki is ranked as one of the DJ Mag's top 10 DJ's in the world and local Ultranauts are in for a treat with his thunderous performance.

Confirmed for 2020 is Ultra's award winning underground music stage, Resistance, it returns with local and global superstar Black Coffee headlining along with Jamie Jones who will be making his debut in SA, the hot creations label-head and respected taste-maker will undoubtedly mesmerize audiences with his melodic brand of house and techno.  Them along with others who will be joining the line-up will be providing the crowd with groovy house and techno vibes to take them into the night. 

Dash Berlin

Tickets for Ultra South Africa 2020 are on sale with most of the Tier 1 tickets sold out, Tier 2 tickets go on sale too. More announcements regarding ticket sales, artists, the brand-new BudX stage and many other expansion plans for 2020 coming soon! Visit www.ultrasouthafrica.com for more

Jamie Jones

Ultra South Africa 2018: Phase 3 Line Up

Phase 3 and the final artist announcement for Ultra 2018 is now out. Click the picture above so can see the full list of names that make up the already stellar lineup for next years event. It's going to be mind blowing with some of the biggest names in Electronic music from the world to South Africa, ready to perform for you! Tickets are selling fast so make sure you get yours now! Ticket information and means to buy them can be found below. 

Ticket information:

Cape Town

	Tier 1	Tier 2
General Access	R700	R800
VIP	R1250	R1500

Johannesburg

	Tier 1	Tier 2
General Access	R800	R950
VIP	R1500	R2000
VVIP	R4000

*Table booking information to be released soon*

For more information, follow Ultra on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or their website. ultrasouthafrica.com/

Monday Choon - Ultra Countdown: Afrojack - Unstoppable

Dutch record producer and remixer Nick van de Wall or better known by his stage name "Afrojack" is no stranger to the Ultra Music Festival with him being almost a a guarunteed headliner at the Miami leg. It will be his second Ultra South Africa with him performing at the first one in 2014. It's hard to believe his hit track featuring Eva Simons "Take Control" was released 5 years ago as it's still a crowd favourite today. 

He's been pretty busy since he last visited the country and has released many hit tracks, most of which you will be hearing during his set this year, one such track is this weeks featured song "Unstoppable" which basically epitomises him. The official video contains scenes from the Call of Duty game as he does feature on the popular first person shooter game sound track and also features scenes from his various shows he performed at, also lots of behind the scenes stuff which is pretty cool and gives you a glimpse into the life of a superstar DJ.

                             

Ultra South Africa 2016 - Final line up!

                    

The final line up for Ultra South Africa 2016 has been released and it includes some big heavy weights of the industry. Many of the artist that have been announced in phase 2 have already visited SA and played at previous Ultra festivals, so people who missed out before can revel in their presence. 

The festival which takes place in South Africa form the 26th of February till the 28th next year in two of the major cities. Cape Town will play host to the two day event at the Ostrich Farm on the 27th and 28th and Johannesburg, at Nasrec Expo center from the 26th to the 27th of February. 

Some were disappointed with the line up, including myself but one has go to understand that planning an event like this, getting artist to confirm to travel to another end of the world for a few days isn't easy. So I applaud the organisers for securing big names like these and obviously the sets aren't going to be the same as the previous ones. 

Afrojack, Tiesto and Carnage join Skrillex, Zedd, Dash Berlin and Robin Schulz to headline this awesome line up for the 2016 event. Amongst them will be a host of local talent that will keep the crowd entertained during the day on the various stages. Dean Fuel, Euphonik, Goldfish, TimoODV, Pascal & Peace just to name a few. 

Tickets are on sale via the website, www.ultrasouthafrica.com, for more information on camping venues for the Cape Town festival and other info you may need to know, follow the various social media streams on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 

Ultra SA 2014

It feels so surreal, sad at the same time because it's over but glad to have experienced it and looking forward to what the future holds from South Africa and this great franchise. I've always been a massive fan of UMF and it's on my bucket list to visit the main party in Miami one day but with the current exchange rate drama it just wasn't feasible. Luckily though the guys at Electric Music heeded my and I'm sure many others call, after 2 years of planning and negotiating, Ultra South Africa became a reality. 

This past weekend saw the festival take place in Cape Town and Johannesburg, in what was the most anticipated music event in 2014, it did more than live up to expectations. With over 40 artists, 11 of which were DJ's that have been voted in the DJ Mag Top 100 charts, crowds were entertained to some of the finest music from some of the best in the business. I attended the Johannesburg leg which saw over 25,000 of the combined 40,000 from both shows take in the sounds and party from 12pm till just after 2am on Sunday morning. 

The variety on offer was quite impressive from the Nicci Beach stage that featured many of the local DJ's playing electro and house music, Soul Candi stage that had deep house and then the impressive main stage, which was HUGE! that featured all the head liners. The local contingent got things under way with the likes of Fresh and Euphonik, Rodger Goode and Goldfish warming the crowd up to what was to be an epic night. 

The first of the international line up was Blasterjaxx, with them being most known for their hit track faith, it was a great way for the crowd to experience what they were all about. The 17 year old wonder kid, Martin Garrix was next, with his new age sounds, his hit tracks Animals and Wizard sent the crowd into raptures. The kid isn't even old enough to drive, heck his dad was here to oversee proceedings and to see him on stage with such a presence was just mind blowing, it seems like he can do no wrong at the moment. 

The next performers was probably the ones I was most looking forward to seeing, ever since hearing them on ASOT 500, I was sold. Willem and Wardt bring a very different style of electronic dance music, with a more harder style sound but very catchy at the same time. If their own work isn't enough, their remixes of many hits by other DJ's just shows you their versatilely. Their remix of Zedd's clarity is still one of the best I've heard and was a firm favourite by the crowd as well. I do hope they tour again as a 1 hour set isn't enough of this talented duo, we want more!

Prior to UMF 2013 in Miami, many didn't even know about Krewella, what a difference a year makes as people could not wait for their set. The energy by the sisters on stage was incredible, their songs although becoming commercial is only a credit to their success and what they have achieved, if you think they killed it last year at UMF, be sure watch out for them at this years event in Miami as I was thoroughly impressed by their performance. 

A few years back when Steve Aoki toured SA, he brought with him at the time not very well known Nicky Romero, to my disappointed Nicky didn't make the Durban leg of that tour but as I expected he stole tbe show at the concert with many saying he was even better than Steve, which I don't find hard to believe, his talent is endless with almost all his productions being massive hits. He rocked Ultra SA with most of his top releases and remixes, there was no stopping him as he started off with his first chart topper Toulouse and just went on from there. He was definitely a  firm favourite with the crowd as some told me they were there just to see him!

Now after seeing such a stellar line up, dancing and jumping all day does get to you but suck it up, down another Red Bull because you still had 3 more to go! Alesso, who some feel should have been the 4th musketeer in the Swedish House Mafia came on soon after Nicky, his hit remix of One Republics "If I lose myself" was by far the crowds pick of his set. Afrojack formed part of the double header head liner, not really a fan of his recent stuff but as I told a friend, seeing him live made a difference and changed my perception about him. 

As you can imagine by the end of Afrojack's set, mine and I'm sure many others feet were ready to give up. It was 12:30am, it was cold, we were exhausted and quite frankly we should be heading home but no one moved towards the exit gates. Damian Pinto, the voice of Ultra came on stage to gee up the crowd for the final artist but he didn't have to. The man, the legend, Tiesto came on to a thunderous welcome from the crowd, kicking off his set with Pair of Dice, he went on to play some of his new work which included 'Take Me', 'Red Lights" and the new remix of John Legends 'All of me'. He has such a presence on stage, it's indescribable and he just knows how to keep the crowd going as he pushed out, mix after mix.

Halfway through his set the rest of the crew came on to join Tij on stage with Afrojack hoisting him up onto his shoulders with the help of South Africa's DJ Fresh. While up there Martin Garrix  hijacked the decks for a bit to spin his latest song, Helicopter, Tiesto soon got back on and then put Martin on his shoulders, all of them on stage at once, not sure if it's happened before but it was a sight to see! Tiesto then ended off his set with some classics of his, pick of the bunch had to be his remix of Deliriums Silence but hearing Adagio for strings for the first time live was an experience on its own! 

The show ended with a flurry of fireworks and all the artist waving the Ultra South Africa flags, Damian Pinto came on stage to thank the performing artists, the sponsors and the crowd. He let slip that this wont be a once off thing and from the response they got in Johannesburg, they might consider 2015 to be held over 2 days. This has been by far one of the best Ultra's outside the USA, the show on the whole was a great success and not only was the calibre of acts good but the sound and lighting to match. The production team can be pretty chuffed at what was accomplished and I'm sure they gave each other pats on the back when this was all finished. Everyone was suffering from depression on Monday with the reality that what we were once looking so forward to has now come and gone but boy was it worth it, till 2015!

PS, lookout for the after movie coming ;)

Relive Ultra Miami 2013

When it comes to music festivals, there was only one that topped them all for me, yes there's Tomorrowland, Creamfields, EDC and the list goes on but UMF Miami has become the ultimate one. Every year it just gets bigger and better with this past year saw them celebrate their 15th year running and the festival extended over two weekends at the Bayfront Park. Since it coincides with Winter Music Conference, you can expect almost every big name DJ playing there on the weekend. Its like an all you can listen to EDM buffet. It was also the venue for Swedish House Mafia's final show as it all began for them in Miami so it was only fitting that it ended there as well. 

Words cannot begin to describe this party and that's why they make an after movie every year to show the rest of us how much we missed out. It was originally said to be released at the end of July but for some reason that go delayed till today but whatever the case, its here for us to enjoy! There are a few legends that feature with the South African flag in the video so keep an eye out!

Tickets for UMF 2014, which returns to a one weekend format have already gone one sale with early bird specials being snapped up in a matter of minutes. I am seriously considering attending this one as tickets are easier to come by than Tomorrowland and it is undoubtedly the mother of all jols. Hola at me if you're interested as well.

Monday Choon: Nicky Romero feat. Nervo - Like home

Nicky Romero is fast becoming a favourite of many dance music fans, his set at this years Ultra Music Festival was not short of amazing. For this track he has teamed up with the Nervo twins from Australia, the blonde bombshells are most noted for their 2011 track "the way we see the world" which was co-performed with Afrojack and was the anthem for Tomorrowland that year. This song is quite catchy and you'll find yourself putting it on repeat on your media player.

Monday Choon: Afrojack, Like Mike, Dimitri Vegas & Nervo - The way we see the world

 

This years Tomorrowland festival in Belgium was rated as one of the best yet but going back a year now to Tomorrowland 2011 with this weeks track. It hasnt been given the recognition it deserves I feel so I'm resurecting it. A 4 way colab between Afrojack, Dimitru Vegas, Like Mike and Nevo "The way we see the world" was chosen as the anthem for last years event.

Monday Choon: Afrojack - Rock the house

Nick van de Wall or better known as Afrojack first burst onto the commercial scene with his hit track "Take over control" featuring vocals from Eva Simmons which was a club sensation. He followed it up with a few singles but none bigger than his colab with fellow DJ Steve Aoki titled "No Beef" which seem to elevate his status and from there his track with Shermanology "Cant stop me now" made him one of the big names in the clubs. Performing at Ultra Music Festival this year and also making the title song for Tomorrowland 2012, he is sure to keep his name at the top of the lists of top DJ's. I cant wait for him to tour SA soon. Here he is with his latest offering "Rock the house"