There’s a certain kind of hush that falls over a beach crowd when Bongeziwe Mabandla sings — and at Feastival this past Saturday, you could feel it in your chest. Dressed in an ivory Boys of Soweto boiler suit and armed only with his guitar, Mabandla didn’t just headline — he transcended.
Feastival, held at Cabo Beach Club, delivered an experience that tried to be more than just a music festival. And it worked. The programming was tight, kicking off with LI’EL and George Sax, who fused DJ tunes and live brass in a way that felt like the right kind of Cape Town contradiction — cosmopolitan yet coastal.
Kristi Lowe’s performance deserves its own paragraph. The young vocalist, backed by a 5-piece band, brought a set that was both vulnerable and anthemic. Her originals (from her upcoming album) landed like old favourites. Acoustic Element followed, and Luke Goliath’s electric guitar solos were unexpectedly electric for a DJ/live hybrid set.
But it was Mabandla’s solo set that anchored the night — intimate yet commanding. From there, the baton passed seamlessly to Dwson, Jamie Slabber (also one of the festival’s organisers), KEILAMANJARO and FKA MASH, whose sets turned the stage into a Boiler Room-esque crowd cocoon. Half of us were dancing in the sand, the rest onstage with the DJs.
Around the edges, there was plenty to do: food trucks, a whiskey casino lounge, Aperol bars, a Champions League screening station courtesy of Hisense. The vibe was curated, not chaotic.
If we’re nitpicking: R120 for a single vodka Red Bull stung. But then again, Cabo isn’t trying to be budget-friendly. It’s trying to be memorable — and on that, Feastival delivered.
