Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place

“Rift Valley Festival isn’t motivated by money but by a love for music and the human spirit. It creates a place for people to express themselves” comments DJ Ska Face about half way through an interview we are conducting at a noisy house party in Kileleshwa.

Over the past week it has been near impossible to miss the hundreds of online posts going up from attendees of the Rift Valley Festival (RVF). All week long people people have been posting about how they were missing it and how acclimatising to normal life after three days of festival hijinks and fun seems a near impossible task. These however were not the only aspects of the festival that Nairobians have chosen to talk about. Harassment by undesirable elements such as pickpockets and thieves, as well as from the police, has also featured heavily in the post-RVF social media feeds.

Ska Face, better known as David Cecil, 36, has performed at the RVF for the past three years and is a die-hard fan. The impromptu interview, which we landed after he missed his flight to Tanzania, is happening on many different levels. Cecil is a musician, manages one of the Ugandan bands that played at the festival, is a documentary filmmaker, a writer and has many other interesting stories to tell (more on that in the next article).

Returning to the main topic of the interview, Cecil goes on to explain why he believes that it is not only down to the organisers to makes sure an event of the kind runs smoothly. Festival goers also play an important role in monitoring other people’s safety and generally keeping an eye on the situation. Enemies of a festival, the slippery pickpockets, general miscreants and highly-organised gangs, will always target a gathering of this kind and try to take advantage of people’s good natured, inebriated fun. Police, as it was proven repeatedly throughout the weekend, are more focussed on shaking down the ticket-bearing revellers so there’s little luck to be had depending on them.

“They should stop harassing Rastas and pot smokers for what is really a minor offence,” continues Cecil, pointing out that on the long run the strategy will backfire because if the police make no effort to protect the people, treating them instead as mobile cash machines, then the organisers will be forced to move the festival elsewhere. Given the current lack of tourism in the country, the money that the RVF brings to the area is an important source of revenue for hundreds of residents and it would not necessarily be in the police’s interest to see the money evaporate completely.

What Cecil believes is that more people need to appreciate what the festival does for Kenyans, considering that its essentially not a commercial venture. Take the time to consider other events and festivals that take place throughout the country and you will realise the extent to which everything is commercialised.

“It’s literally one the cheapest festival I’ve ever been to and I’ve been working at festivals since 1996,” says Cecil, adding: “Sure KES 4 500 may seem like much but it’s for three days! Anywhere else in the world that’d be crazy.”

According to Cecil, everyone needs to support Sean Ross, the organiser, and the sacrifices he makes for the multi-staged event. “I play every year for free and I know a lot of other DJs do the same. I’ll keep doing that as long as there’s no exploitation,” he says adding: “When I hear that the festival’s survival could be question, I think that everyone needs to stand up support him and make sure that it remains a fixture on the Kenyan festival calendar. Where else would you find something as crazy and amazing as the MiniUP club? Shoeshine Boy and Dread Steppa killed it there on saturday night!

 

Flattery will get you everywhere and UP Magazine is particularly happy to get positive feedback about MiniUP. As the interview is drawing to an end, the bass is being increasingly turned up next door as DJ Momo‘s farewell Bedroom Rave-up gets into full swing.

Cecil has a point that remains with me long after I have begun to imbibe myself with the cocktails that are being churned out at the party by the Aqueous mobile bar team. The festival belongs to all of us, we are the festival and I don’t just mean the people who kept the music going on the different stages for three days. Every single Kenyan with an appreciation for music and togetherness needs to work towards making it a better place to go to year after year. And that means even the police.