I Heart Joburg – What Went Down

The City of Gold played host to the first-ever iHeartJoburg music festival, and the eclectic line-up and audience definitely proved that a mish-mash of quality artists and some great organisation could produce an incredible event.

Ellis Park was turned into a convenient and effective event venue, and while there was the ever-apparent logistical nightmare of trying to find your respective entrance, lines and queues were streamlined thanks to a lot of staff hands on deck at the venue.

There was a relatively noticeable shortage of food vendors around the outskirts of the stadium, but the lines at the existing stalls did move quickly.

As for the show itself, Steyn Entertainment must be commended on the incredible stage that was build to showcase the great talent on offer throughout the day. The stage was massive and gave the acts a chance to interact with all the different pockets of the crowd, particularly the Golden Circle ticket-holders.

The local artists which shadowed the almost-overwhelming international line-up didn’t lack in any “star quality”, so to speak, in comparison to their big-name counterparts. The likes of CrashCarBurn and the Graeme Watkins Project did a phenomenal job of getting the crowd off their feet and the spirits up ahead of the big artists.

T-Pain kicked off the running-order of the international acts, and his show was as energetic as expected. T-Pain, along with his posse, managed to slam out some of his more well-known collaborative hits (even if they weren’t entirely his), which got the crowd pumping and singing along.

The stage was then rocked by B.o.B, who managed to captivate the audience all by himself. His radio hits and lesser-known tracks went down incredibly well with the audience, and B.o.B even climbed into the Golden Circle and run to the general standing area, giving a real up-close experience for the crowd. A real nice touch by the Georgia rapper.

Panic at the Disco then injected some rock into the audience’s ears – playing songs from all three of their albums. Their sound was noticeably punchy yet clear, and frontman Brendon Urie stole the show with his impressive vocal abilities and manoeuvres – backflips included.

Jason Derulo took the stage the showcase his dancing and singing prowess, and he definitely got the crowd excited. His show clearly has a lot of emphasis on dancing and spectacle, and he did a good job to keep the attention on him, however, some more singing and less by-standing while the back-track takes centre stage would’ve made his performance stand out more.

Jessie J was a surprise package of the evening, and delivered a diva-like performance while also remaining that down to Earth lovable London-girl. Jessie J was undoubtedly the most ‘personal’ with the crowd, talking about her songs and experience in SA in between her smash hits. Bringing out B.o.B to perform “Price Tag” was definitely the right icing on the cake for her show.

Fall Out Boy were tasked with rounding off a star-studded show, and they did so without fail. Patrick Stump, Pete Wentz, Joe Trohman, and Andy Hurley, were exactly the rockstars one would expect them to be. Their lighting show was superb, and their sound was great, while a few tweaks could’ve been made to vocal volume. All the big hits were strummed out and there was some nice interaction from Pete Wentz, who has become known to be the “talker” of the band. 

Over all, a great show and some credit needs to be given to all those involved and all the acts that performed. Hopefully I Heart Joburg is an annual idea, and we even see it extends to other SA cities.