Every other month over the past year and more, I've attended the rooftop parties hosted by the urban concepts collective Kool Out at their headquarters-slash-groove spot on Commissioner Street in Jozi's CBD.
It's become tradition; a compulsion undertaken without flinching or thinking about budgetary constraints. Besides, there's a window between 2pm and 3pm when everyone's allowed in free.
There's also the promise of an afternoon spent watching the sun set over a city whose every moment feels like a frantic overload; where walking the streets feels like navigating a maze of let-me-not-die-today variants.FOR THE GROWN AND SEXY
Kool Out aren't alone in curating experiences outside of the scope of club culture and the limitations such environments place on patrons, like dress code.
Down the road in Newtown, fashion designer and perennial cool-person-to-know Maria McCloy, along with heavyweight selectors Kenzhero and Kid Fonque, have started an event called TONGHT. It's a space by, and for, the grown and sexy in a city that often feels limited in scope regarding what gets the pass in lifestyle and entertainment quarters.Just this month, Thebe the gawd pushed his Tempy Life in front of folks who were in on the groove when Kalawa did the things all those years ago.
TONGHT is what happens when kids who were all up in clubs like 206 grow up, in some cases get families, and find themselves cast to the margins - not because they've become any less of trendsetters and shifters plugged into the global matrix, but because of the limitations we place on what gets the pass in our circles.
There are more places popping up in the city, the parties at the Tennis Club in New Doornfontein/Ellis Park and the rooftop at No1 Eloff being the most noteworthy, recent additions.Come summertime, Maboneng's poolside shindigs, which have in the past hosted events by Weheartbeat featuring the Soulection crew, will be a weekly Sunday affair, with some parties being invite-only.
FOCUS ON THE ARTIST
With the move to carve niche spots comes the need to decentralise, and that's what the likes of His&Hers Jams and Trackside Creative in Soweto, and Wolf & Co Café's acoustic sessions in Tsakane, seek to achieve.Designer, radical chef and Wolf & Co owner Sphiwe Giba says that the sessions are aimed at anyone who's a performance artist or intrigued by the idea."We [are] targeting emerging artists and also known artists. The format is very simple, one artist exhibits/performs in each session."
This format, he says, places the focus on the artist, and isn't necessarily a popularity contest. Sessions are usually from 45 minutes to two hours...