FRATPACKER WORLD.

South Africa. A country and land known for a diverse number of reasons with our diversity being the number one reason. It’s hard to box us South Africans in. From the various accents, languages, cultures, traditions and heritages, it feels almost impossible to have a common gaol or love. Well except for live music and concerts. The love story between South Africans and live music is a beautiful and just like our diversity we appreciate all walks of it.

I say this because South Africa has a big love for, what the global mainstream may deem as, niche artists. Why? Well, I’d say it goes to our love for music and lack of care for celebrity. This mindset and attitude allow to focus on the main thing which is the musicality and artistry of the musician and not the name of the musician. It’s more important for the fans to connect and engage with the music and not just the artist. I liken this to social media where someone may have 10s of thousands of followers who gets lots of views and likes but compared to someone who has a few followers, but their community actually comments, shares and engages with their work. This creates a long-lasting community and dedicated fanbase which usually turns cult.

Popular opinion would probably disagree with me, saying that as South Africans we want to see big names because it’s not like they regularly include us in the tour dates and locations but that to me proves my point even more. Why go for big names that are too big to care for a “smaller” fan base? Why not go for the names where the fans have a real connection and love for their music and build a relationship that will have the artists wanting to come back again and grow their fanbase.

One event and production company seem to understand this. Once Upon a Time in Joburg, a one-day live music mini festival founded and bought to you by Dr. Bird Productions. You’re probably wondering what’s Once Upon a Time in Joburg and where did it come from? Well, the event came out of nowhere last year when in February they announced they were bringing, American RnB singer, Xavier Omar to the country to perform on the 2^nd of March 2024 at Field & Study Park and he shared the stage with Lord Kez, Marcus Harvey & Simmy. I mean what an introduction right? Who are these guys and where did they come from?

Well Once Upon a Time in Joburg is produced by South African company, Dr. Bird Productions, which is founded by Onye Iheukwumere. He created the event out of a love of RnB music and wanting to see artists that have cult followings because that’s where the true hardcore music fans live and he wants to see that grow year by year. “In five years, we want Once Upon a Time in Joburg to be the home for R&B and Neo-Soul on the continent. Not necessarily the biggest — but the most trusted. A place where fans know they’ll see artists they love, and artists know they’ll be performing for an audience that truly gets it. We want it to grow, yes — but without losing the soul. This has always been about creating a space that centres the music and the people who love it.”, says Onye.

This year Once Upon a Time in Joburg decided to go for their 2^nd round and had emerging local acts such as Lusanda & Nanette, who both have cultivated their own fanbases through their music and social media presence, and both songstresses rose to the occasion and bright lights, in the face of 2000 people and held their own. They also had established superstar South African songstress and hitmaker Shekhinah, who absolutely demolished her performance as usual and reminding us why she’s Mzansi’s sweetheart. The international headliner this time around wasn’t just one but two headliners.

First, they had Goldlink come on the stage at 5:45pm and boy was it a sight to see. Now this wasn’t the first time Goldlink had performed in South Africa. He performed in Johannesburg in 2019 for Afropunk. In the years between then and now he had ruffled some feathers with his comments on Mac Miller and a majority of fans thought he had been exiled into retirement but that wasn’t the case at all. Having cult classic singles and album in ‘At What Cost’, the love of music resided in his fans all these years and they were more than excited to see one of their favourite artists back in Johannesburg performing on stage again. Showing you that as things come and go in life, the music always remains.

The main international headliner for the night was British singer of Columbian descendant, Sasha Keable. Now if you didn’t know of Sasha Keable before the mini-festival, you might have heard her on Tik-Tok where her songs like Hold Up, Why & Act Right were trending sounds last year. These songs gained her popularity amongst young women and especially in South Africa. This was clear to see on Saturday when performing WHY you could hear the entire crowd singing along with every last breath in their lungs, so much so that it inspired Sasha to do an encore of the song and had her teary eyed from all the love.

Now, it wasn’t just the artists who made the event a success. The DJs (Chainz, Ash, Kaygo & Marauder [USA]) in-between sets who laid down some of our favourite jams that had us dancing and singing along, throughout the day. The layout of the event and how they used the space was organised and allowed for a great flow of traffic and movement. They had stand-out pieces such as their welcome walls, which was a huge hit amongst the snappers, the outdoor games they had setup, and the food vendors were serving just as hard as the performers. Overall, it was a wonderful day out. A great way to spend your afternoon to enjoy music and some downtime and still go home early enough to either decompress and chill or paint the town red if you had the energy for it afterwards.

Once Upon a Time in Joburg has done something magically with these last two shows. They’ve shown the South African public that it’s not just the big names fans care about but the music. Fans want to experience the artists that they play in the room when by themselves, the artists they might not play on the aux around the homies because they afraid they’ll be the odd man out. The artist who they’ve grown with and built a genuine and pure connection with through their music. They’ve shown us that you don’t need multiple days and camping to create a valuable experience for the audiences and there are different perspectives to what a festival can be or look like and you know what…maybe we do need more mini festivals of the kind. Thank you for providing us with a fairytale experience, that ended with a happily ever after. Thank you Once Upon a Time may your story never come to an end so that ours may multiply.