Up The Creek Going with the flow for 25 years

p The Creek, the only SA festival where people listen to music while relaxing on boats, turns 25 this year, making it one of the oldest in the country.

Splashy Fen is SA’s longestrunning festival but only by a whisker, also having started in 1990.

Up The Creek will take place on the banks of the Breede River near Swellendam from January 29 to February 1. It is effectively the first popular music festival on the calendar for SA.

But the calendar becomes busier every year and Up The Creek faces increasing competition.

“Music festivals are popular among fans of rock, pop, hiphop and other genres in SA. It is a global trend as bands are finding live music more lucrative than album sales,” says Up The Creek director and founder Annie Sowden.

One new festival is Freedom Fest, which takes place in Pretoria in April. Its lineup includes US hard rock band Skillet and US indie band The Airborne Toxic Event.

The Sowing the Seeds festival will be staged again this year,