Warm days, cold nights and more than 70 artists and groups preforming on two stages over four days made up the 2012 edition of Splashy Fen. I had only made one prior trip to Splashy and, with just a little bit of prompting from my partner, decided a trip to Underberg for the 23rd version would be a great way to spend the Easter weekend.
Unfortunately both of us had work commitments that forced us to miss the bands that performed on Thursday evening, however, the line-up for the rest of the festival included a number of acts that we were very keen to see.
With two stages running from around noon to midnight each day choices had to be made as to what to see. This meant that it wasn’t always possible to watch everything we wanted to but could often catch part of an act if not the whole performance. Highlights for me were the performances by Arno Carstens & Albert Frost, Madala Kunene, and Zebra & Giraffe.
There were a number of younger bands there and Toxic Candy, despite Savannah the lead singer battling with flu, really impressed.
We took food with us but with a selection of reasonably priced food stalls it is not necessary as there is something available to suit all tastes. The bar also had a wide variety of stock. Ice on sale was also welcome.
The only disappointment to me was that the organizers did not enforce the ban on car boot music. The often very loud music coming from different cars detracted from the relaxed atmosphere of the event.
Would I go back? Almost certainly, although probably in crowd of 6 to 8 people as two people don’t always want to do the same thing at the same time. While it is fine to go off and do things by yourself, I always feel that it it better to have someone to share the experience with.
