Why Hamburg’s New Jazz Festival Felt More Rock ’n Roll Than Oppikoppi

A few weeks ago we travelled to Hamburg – in the Eastern Cape, not Germany – to attend a new music festival that I hope will become an annual institution. When we visited Hamburg for the first time many years ago, it was a struggle to get to the place – along a severe gravel road that knocked approximately ten years off the car’s suspension.

We were pleasantly surprised to find a new tarred road – the new road is two years old now, we’re told at the local pub, with a new bridge still being constructed. The festival is the brainchild of Dumza Maswana, and the lineup had a number of South African jazz and indigenous-jazz crossover acts.

Also on stage were children from the Keiskamma Music Academy, armed with marimbas, violas, violins, and cellos. It ended off with a highlight for me – Mandisi Dyantyis and his band. It was great to experience his performance in his cultural heartland, alongside people who are familiar with Methodist hymns as part of their cultural heritage, rather than the oddity it must be in a place like Stellenbosch (where I saw him perform last).

The crowd sang along like they are in church. I didn’t take many photographs – I was in the moment, thinking that this festival could replace Oppikoppi for me. The Oppikoppi Rock Festival also happened over Women’s Day’s weekend and was an annual pilgrimage for many years, from Johannesburg to the Bushveld near Thabazimbi.

But this festival in Hamburg somehow felt more rock ‘n roll than Oppikoppi, with the fusion between indigenous and overseas sounds. The best musical sounds come from fusion, from the combination of holy and profane, church and dance, country and gospel, blues and folk.

So many highlights – popular fashion with indigenous Xhosa garment designs modernized into a funky kimomo, people nonchalantly slinging camping chairs over their shoulders while discussing jazz, the Hamburg Jazz Band, Lungiswa Plaatjies, Dumza Maswana himself.

If this festival continues, I’ll travel from far to attend in future, but I hope I’ll just travel from around the corner, like now. Also, I finally have a car with Eastern Cape number plates – it went to the festival on its maiden voyage. I absolutely love living in this part of the country.