Smelly ‘Oppi-potties’ but great sounds

AS THE sun rose on the third and final day of Oppikoppi, the backbone that holds the festival together was laid bare in the harsh light and people wandered gingerly around the portable toilets.

The porta-potties had been put through their paces and the smell could be picked up from metres away. The hungover steadily made their way inside in hopes that they had finally been drained after they had experienced similar hygiene horrors on Saturday.

“They only drain them at 4am,” said a staffer who’d been hired temporarily to stand watch at the toilets. “But people come in and do scary things after partying, so that messes with the morning and the rest of the day.”

The 28-year-old, who asked not to be named, said she was being paid R250 a day for her 10-hour daily shift. She came from Pretoria with the contractors to work at the festival and said she was grateful for the job. “I’ve been unemployed for a while …”

The drunken masses that made their way through the night were faced with many safety issues.

A girl reported that her drink had been spiked, and a man stumbled down a steep, rocky path and sprained his ankle. Both struggled to get medical attention.

“I couldn’t believe that there was no visible help,” said the man. “Firstly, how can they have no proper lights or stairs?”

He complained that when he finally wobbled his way to the medics’ tent they first asked him if he had any money. “Then they charged me R30 to put this gauze around my ankle.”

Alyssa Klein said her friend passed out after her drink was spiked. “We had to wait an hour for a paramedic and when one finally arrived she (her friend) had woken up.” She said her friend wasn’t even checked after the incident.

But this wasn’t the norm for most festivalgoers, with most giving rave reviews of Oppi.

It was Nino van Aarde’s 20th experience of the festival and he felt organisation had become more professional.