By Lienke de Beer
No amount of rain could stop this special day from taking place.
Prime Circle dominated the stage at Mustang’s – the dancing place in Nelspruit as part of the Happy Dayz Music Festival on 09 December 2023.
With every single note, strum of a guitar string and beat of the drum you could feel the music in your bones, every moment more epic than the next. This is why music is also art, you don’t have to see it, you’ll feel it!
The band changed the cold and gloomy evening into a night filled with passion, laughter and good vibes. One of our own Lowveld rockstars, Cash O’Reilly, had the opportunity to join Prime Circle on stage and he absolutely nailed it by showing off his pure talent.
Lead singer Ross Learmonth had a moment with a fan, where he took her phone on stage and recorded a video of the crowd and the band. That ” Oh my gosh, did that really just happen?” moment was seen across her face when he returned the phone to her. One of my favourite songs “Innocent” was of course played and my heart flew away. Another of course was “Hallo Hallo” and “Consider Me”.
Music lovers from all across South Africa came together to share and witness their one last “Hurrah” before Ross takes off on his new journey. This was his 3rd last performance with Prime Circle before he took on his solo career.
Speaking with Stacey Amorin, one of the organisers of the Happy Dayz festival she said they were happy with the turnout. “We estimated to have about 400 people, and we had more than that so we are very pleased, despite the rain.” Despite the storms the Lowveld experienced over the weekend the team remained calm and worked together to create an unforgettable evening for all.
Cutting Jade also made an appearance and WOW what a band!
I was absolutely in awe of their pure talent and stage presence, as it was also my first time seeing them live, in action. And speaking of new journeys their drummer Jorn Dannheimer, will also be leaving the band, Small Town Music spoke to Cutting Jade regarding Jorn’s exit. ’’We are sad to see Jorn leave, he has been our chief slower downer and speeder upper since the boys started the band in high school so that is all the way back to 1998. He is a wonderful person; a great dad and friend and we are going to miss so many things about him apart from the music too. We wish him all the best with his move and hope it brings nothing but success and happiness and love for him and his family. It is a big loss for us, and we are still processing what we are going to do and how we are going to approach the change, so no promises on anything now, but I am pushing for a new album to be honest. We know we still have some magic to create together.’’
The event was very successful even with the rain as the Lowveld is renowned for its summer storms, but luckily Stacey was prepared for everything and made sure all was in order from sound, and lighting and even making sure every band was happy and at ease.
Let’s hope that next year the rain will give us some grace and take a break from trying to crash our parties. Everyone who attended agreed that it was one of the best shows of 2023.
“Planning has started for our festival next year with some more amazing bands and artists. Will definitely try to plan it outside of rain season” Stacey concluded with a smile.
All photo credit: Lienke de Beer Photography
