This piece is about a campaign, a document, and a growing movement that could meaningfully shift how live music works in Cape Town. It’s about who AHCOM are, what Our Conditions of Work sets out to do, why we’ve signed the petition — and why we think the rest of the scene should take it seriously too.
There’s a version of event production that most of us have quietly accepted as the norm: book a venue, stack a lineup, open the doors, hope the energy takes care of itself. It works often enough. But it also means that when something genuinely considered comes along — when an event treats the entire experience as the creative work, not just the music — you feel the difference before the first act even starts.
Kiss Kiss was that difference.
If you’ve spent any time in Cape Town’s live music circles over the past few years, you’ve probably ended up at 35 Loop Street. The KAYA Café — now operating as KAYA HQ — has quietly become one of the most consistent launchpads for emerging talent in the city. Not through hype or algorithmic positioning, but through something far less glamorous and far more valuable: showing up, night after night, with intentional lineups and a genuine respect for the artists on stage.
For all the scale and prestige that comes with the Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTIJF), what stayed with us most this year was something more fundamental. It was the love in the room for live music played by actual people, in real time, on actual instruments. Not as nostalgia. Not as a niche concern. As something alive, urgent, and worth gathering for.
