Street culture celebrated
COTTON Fest, a music and youth culture festival, will debut in Durban in July.
Announcing this last week was Bianca Naidoo, who founded the festival in 2019 with her husband, the late rapper and fashion icon Riky Rick.
Cotton Fest has become one of the most anticipated entertainment events in South Africa.
It celebrates South African street culture through music, fashion, popular sport, art, food and more.
The Durban leg of the festival will be held on July 2 at the Hollywoodbets Kings Park Stadium outer field.
Naidoo said the line-up would remain under wraps for now.
“The format of the festival is always to announce the line-up during the second phase. Cotton Fest features talent from across the country in each city. Cotton Fest Durban will include both well-known and emerging talent from Durban.
“Cotton Fest was fundamentally created to give established and young talent a platform to showcase their craft, and further fuse the gaps within the different local current movements.
“The festival hosts a minimum of two stages at every edition of the event to ensure this is catered for. As always, the festival will host an open mic in the respective cities and run an online submission process for all young local talent to upload their music, with the most talented artists being selected to perform at the festival,” Naidoo said.
She said that taking Cotton Fest to
Durban, Rick’s birthplace, was always part of his plan, and was particularly special to the whole team. Since her husband’s death, she said, the event had evolved.
“Cotton Fest was initially created as a platform for young talent, but it has since evolved into a movement since Riky’s passing. The festival will remain a three-city event with definite plans to expand within those regions.
“There are also other initiatives within
our programme, since inception in 2022, to further grow the movement. These are the bursary fund, Friends Day, campus events and collaborations with creatives to support various subcultures.
“Our goal is to take Cotton Fest to the rest of Africa and even overseas.”
Highlights of the event include:
The Cotton Stage: It will feature headline artists, while the second stage will feature the new wave of young talent.
The Tuckshop: The merchandise area will offer Cotton Fest classics and it will also feature collaborations from Proudly South African brands and local creatives, offering unique pieces, and limited branded fashion items and accessories.
Sports Area: a skating ramp and obscure games arena for all enthusiasts.
For more information, visit cottonfest.com and follow Instagram: cottonfestjhb, Facebook: CottonFestJHB, Twitter: CottonFestJHB Tickets, including limited early-bird specials, are now open for sale via Webtickets and Pick n Pay outlets.