The dust has settled in amongst the glitter, lost shoes and found souls. After some well needed decompression, stretches and bottomless chai, I finally feel articulate enough to share some thoughts on Kilifi New Year.
Hugs from memories and delirious smiles encompassed the aftermath for me and for good reason too! It all began the morning of 31st with the calm faces of the producers hiding the anxiety under caffeine highs and cigarettes, but it wasn’t long until they were joined by punters arriving wide-eyed and bushy tailed. People expected something else. A party with great DJ’s, some fun lights and stuff?
The Octopus’ Garden in the shade…The décor of recycled materials, scrap-kanga bunting, old metals & plastic bottles and disused pallets glimmered in the daylight, but came alive at night. Funktion-One, the makers of some of the best soundsystem’s in the world, supplied us with a system that Kenya has never seen before! The market area beamed with delicious foods from swahili dishes, veggie delights and fresh juices to clothing stalls, boutique hand crafted garments, jewellery, a barbers and even a piercing salon. The Octopus installation lay perfectly in the tree mid-dancefloor touching the shell of the stage – and we reached for the lasers.
Currently Listening to: Kilifornia – mAAD JIKoni a.k.a Eddie Grey a tune about the magic of Kilifi, inspired by their time here over the festival and beyond. So much love for this.
The Music
Bengatronics, with beats from Gregg Tendwa, otherworldly musicianship from Eddie Grey and fellow guitarist Udelele, the grounding voice & Nyatiti of Makadem bought afro-fusion & benga together in a show which was something special.
Dutch duo UMOJA, young and spirited, played music from East Africa and the dancefloor personified #BushBeatsBeachBOOTY. A beyond impressive knowledge of African music despite having never set foot on the continent: “This is a Kikuyu track how do these guys even know about this music!” I over heard on the dancefloor to many’s surprise, and appreciation was shown in ample tweaking out.
Seth Schwarz killed the countdown set and took us into the new year stomping. Phenomenally amalgamating his classical background with techy electronica, coupled with a unique stage presence and pure love for the crowd bought us into the new year faces gleaming. Electrafrique followed with prime time beats for dance-frique wizardry mixing Afro-beat with live percussionists and a saxophonist worthy of a solo set himself.
Be Svendsen‘s sunrise set bought a resounding feel of unity to dancefloor, with a force almost so passive you would think he was a hypnotist in a another life. The gradual streams of warmth from rays peeking through our Octopus’ Garden, were reflected only off smudgey-painted faces and happy (sore) feet.
We were transported to the second stage where the almighty beast that is Umojah Sound System dominated our headspace with Dread Steppa selecting the best weighty reggae and dub tracks around. Lucky Birdi hit it up looking through the bamboo dome onto the butter-flat waters of Kilifi Creek, for the gloriest of the morning with deep, soul-lifting beats. Chucky restarted the beauteous Funktion-One sound system & Max Melesi kept the dancefloor alive throughout the heat of the day, before Bengatronics returned with an extra long, more experimental set that blew my face off.
Cortega prevailed f0r his set with Umoja dropping a variety of East & West afro-beat along with some of the freshest new tunes from the Kenyan scene. The three of them performing together was a special sight; people getting low and booty shaking at it’s best. Cortega then played with The African Beat Parade to bring the best of dirty beats and a live element pamoja. Enchan followed with a deep house set, earthing the crowd with deep bass grooves and sweet vocals.
Luke Redford smashed it with his second performance and the penultimate set of the festival, mixing deep house with future disco & psychedelic samples. Many of us couldn’t leave the dancefloor with that “this is tooooo gooood,” scrunched-up-bass-face-pout-thing going on. Pete Rowbots was in his element rising with the sun to a floor left with the crème de la crème of the party. The last performance turned from a schedueled 2-hour set into 4, soul-y due to popular demand; super crowd pleasing sing-a-long feel good classics mixed with a kali backbeat, (and a personal favourite) it bought together all that I loved about the festival; big tunes, pixies high on their thrown’s, ultimate stage presence, melted ice cream and pure vibes.
The burn
Giriama Acrobats who performed throughout the festival gave one final performance followed by our beloved friends playing with fire. Mwanase’s fire hoop lit the olympic-like torches, and The African Beat Parade’s percussionists followed alongside the performers in the procession to the beach. The beach was brimming – locals and festival goer’s alike watched in anticipation as the boat holding the torches waded in the water towards the Hand.
The fire began from the back and all that I expected disappeared. The Hand grasped a ball of fire like how I hope to grasp opportunity this New Year! A spectacle of all senses, the conscious and the unconscious, I reasoned with new year goals & idealistic future endeavours when I took a deep breath, remembered to be here, now, present.
Spending a good while looking at the awe in everyone’s faces as it came down was that nauseous, gut-wrenching feeling you get when you’re too excited about something. For those few minutes I felt completely connected with every person; the water, the earth around me and the creation of such unique experience. And as the embers mushroomed, spiralling into the night sky dissipating glitter above our heads, the fire slowly began to settle. The last moments left an innate feeling of “letting all that shit go,” that I’m pretty sure everyone took a simultaneous sigh of relief.
Enter the new
Feeling almighty, powerful and submissive at the hand of the spirit of Kilifi New Year, we left our ego’s, pretension and prejudice behind to let loose & begin the year with a booty shaking bang.
It was the first year the party turned into a real festival, a creative explosion of like-minded, fascinating minds, and it has definitely set the president for years to come. In fact in Kenya overall. Mega shout out to all the awesome volunteers, the producers, the stall holders, all the behind the scenes people, sponsors, Funktion-One, media peoples, blessed travellers, lucid locals, and all the participants making it into such a beauty.
I love you all!
Tuko pamoja,
Claudia & The Distant Relatives
x
