Excuse to pop bottles
“I DON’T know if you watched the Fyre Festival documentary but those guys tried to do it by themselves and that was a total no-no,” says DJ Dimplez, bursting into laughter.
“We’re able to pull off Pop Bottles anywhere because hotels know how to handle guests and transport companies know what they are doing too. So the whole plan is to keep it simple and make sure people are having fun.”
DJ Dimplez wants to steer clear of anything Ja Rule would want to be involved in but is proud that his brainchild, Pop Bottles, has taken care of the music aspect so well, and hired the right partners to ensure the event is able to cross borders.
Last year, the event took a turn to Mauritius. Last night, DJ Dimplez announced he was taking the Pop Bottles Ski Festival to Afriski Resort in Lesotho from June 7 to 10. Packages that include ski lessons, equipment hire, accommodation and more are priced from R3800.
A yet-to-be-revealed line-up will include talent from Lesotho and they will keep the party going at night.
During the day, revellers will have the opportunity to hike, do 4x4 trails, snowboard and ski on the snowcapped Maluti mountains.
“The whole point of going to Lesotho is to have a different experience,” he says. “We’ve had a summer experience in Mauritius. A lot of South Africans have a negative perception of winter but being in Lesotho when it snows will be something they aren’t used to. It will be nice to take young black South Africans skiing.”
DJ Dimplez enjoys sharing experiences. In 2008, the popular hip hop DJ decided to throw a birthday party and call it Pop Bottles. That signalled the start of what would become a decade-long staple on the music calendar.
“The phrase ‘pop bottles’ merely means a celebration,” he explains. “People just enjoyed that it was on a Sunday, which wasn’t the norm. And it was a purely hip-hop experience.
“They asked me when we’d be having the next one and I said next year, but they weren’t having it. So a month later we did another Pop Bottles and have been going every month since.”
Last year, he took a hot line-up and planted it on Mauritius. This experience was eye-opening because: “In Mauritius, it was maybe 80% a South African crowd but we had people from Nigeria, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Kenya! The plan is to have South Africans go overseas to perform, but we send out invites all over the continent through our partners, Channel O.”
■ Pop Bottles Ski Festival is at Afriski Resort, Lesotho, June 7 to 10. Tickets and details: https://popbottles.co.za