After months of rumor-mongering by the uninformed, Oppikoppi kicked off the process of revealing which international artists they have confirmed for this year’s festivities. Being the culturally relevant mega-fest that they are, of course Oppi was able to track down the amazing talents of… Bullet For My Valentine.
Anyone else feel like they’ve just been sucked through a wormhole?
Oppikoppi is an institution in the South African music and cultural landscape. If it didn’t happen once a year, I think a lot of us would feel like something huge was missing in our lives. And that’s been pretty well represented in the fest’s growing audience with each year. When I made my first Oppi back in 2009, it’s audience was more immense than any I’d seen before. By this year, I imagine it will have doubled. That’s amazing! Kudos to them!
With that level of success and acclaim, you’d think that the festival would begin stretching its musical muscles and bringing in some of the biggest bands from around the world. Except it seems like the organizers have instead decided to focus their recruitment drive in another direction: by allowing bands that were relevant over a decade ago to headline an event in 2012.
I’m not completely clear on the motivations behind this sort of move. One year we had Billy Talent, then Sum41. Who’s next? Barry Gibb? It’s as if Oppi’s management really believe the world will end on December 21st and figured they may as well watch all the bands they loved in 2003 before Oppikoppi is just Oppikrater.
It’s not all a waste though, because sometimes their DeLorean/time-travelling phone booth brings in some interesting choices. Diplo, for example, is one of the rumored international artists coming to the festival this year. Can’t say I really have a problem with them hooking us up with one of the best DJs in the world!
I’m sure these aren’t all the announcements that Oppi will have to share, of course. And, if the rumors are anything to go by, we’ve still got slightly more relevant acts on the way. Still, it seems a bit of a sad state of affairs that the coolest bands in the world are being brought here by, well, by chewing gum companies.