The Halloween Party PTA Experience (Ramfest 2026)

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Yep, so it is that time of year again. Last year I attended Ramfest 2025 as my first major festival experience. Although after I posted that video, I remembered that I had actually attended a park acoustics back in like 2014. So, memory lapse aside, um, I was back this year, and goddamn, was this year an even better experience than the last one? Now I'm gonna hit you guys with two major disclaimers right off the bat. The first being that this is technically no longer Ramfest. The Pretoria and Cape Town events both being rebranded as the Halloween party Pretoria and the Halloween Party Cape Town, respectively. Also, the same people behind Ram, I'm not entirely sure why they've decided to move away from the Ramfest name. It could possibly be to differentiate this Halloween event, this annual Halloween event, from the return of a fully fledged Rampest later down the line. Beyond that, I am not entirely sure, and I couldn't tell you for certain. I am not in the know. The second disclaimer being that once again, I was at the Pretoria Halloween party and not the Cape Town one. Now, if I had the money, I gladly would have attended both. So please consider subscribing and supporting the channel if you love what we do. And Cape Town, you might just see me in your city pretty soon. Now that being said, last year's Ram Now Halloween party was a little bit of a disaster. The headliners of Devil West Prada got rained out and their set was cut short quite literally after their first song. To say that this left a bitter taste in the mouths of a lot of Cape Tonians regarding the whole event would be an understatement. However, I am happy to say that it seems like this year was a smashing success from everything that I have seen online and have heard from friends that either attended the event or played that event. While I wasn't there to cover Cape Town Halloween party myself, shout out to Devin and Nicole who were. Nicole's video is already out at the time of recording this, and Devin's should be out either shortly after or the same day. Please go show them some love. Now, last year I attended as a fan and a content creator, and this year I was there in a slightly different capacity, being hired alongside Dizzy Khaki to film three bands on the lineup. The dynamic of experiencing the festival on the grounds as well as backstage added a whole bunch of different layers to the experience for me. So if you saw me, I probably looked like this. But beyond the exhaustion of running around and filming a festival, I had a hell of a good time. So with all of that out of the way, this is what my Halloween party Pretoria 2026 looked like. While last year was a great time, there were some problems. And it looks like those problems were largely addressed this year. The first one being sound issues on B Stage last year. This year's sound on B Stage was nothing short of fucking beautiful. And I'm pretty sure that has everything to do with the decision to have Ashley Gazeford on sound for front of house and Yaku Nodea on sound for the stage. Having these two work together on a singular stage is an absolute powerhouse of a move. And I think they definitely reaped the rewards of having those two gentlemen work together. There also seems to be a wider variety of food options this year. A fan favorite being the Railways pizza truck. I swear to god, I saw boxes on every table throughout the day at some point, and after getting a taste of one of those pizzas, I'm nowhere in no way surprised as to why. And lastly, when it came to bars, I heard significantly less complaints about being trapped in an internal line of death trying to get any kind of drink. Now, these complaints may have still existed for some people, but I definitely either did not hear many about them or didn't hear them at all. This doesn't mean that this year didn't present any of its own problems though. My main concern that would have affected everyone being a distinct lack of shade during the afternoon. Yes, there were tables with umbrellas, but they were just not cutting it for the amount of people present on the grounds. Unless you were backstage or in the VIP area, you were most likely fucking cooking in the sun. This event started at 1 pm, so there was a good four to five hours of just absolutely baking in like 30 to 32 degree heat. I get that setting up some kind of shade for the crowd area is really expensive, especially for two separate stages. But there were multiple times where the audience was like huddled up in a corner of shade off to either the left or the right of the stage, depending on which one you were at, instead of in front of the stage. So it kind of skewed what the audience looked like. As far as I'm aware, I didn't hear of anyone succumbing to heat, but I would not have been surprised if they did, because again, it was fucking cooking. Also, shout out to Andre who lent me some sunscreen. Who, if it wasn't for him, I would be a completely different shade of red filming this video. Thank you, dude. You saved my life. Now, this might be a hot take, but I do think that a free source of accessible drinking water is necessary. Not just for the Halloween PTA, but for all day fests in general. I could be wrong, but I don't recall seeing one anywhere on the grounds, and of the few people that I've spoken to, they don't seem to recall one either. Now I get it, refreshments are part of an events business model. But forgive me for believing that people's well-being trumps capitalism in this situation. I do believe that this is a necessity when you're dealing with a particularly scorching South African summer where the chances of a heat stroke or dehydration are really, really high. But beyond those two concerns, this was a music festival. Let's talk about some music. Because holy shit, was this lineup stacked with not only some of South Africa's best, but some of my favorite local bands of all time? And not to mention a killer international headliner. This time I actually made it on time. So I'll watch the opening band. Despite myself and Rafielwork, who was catching a ride with me, uh driving into military town by accident, and I think almost into a military base where we were not supposed to be. It was very concerning. But we made it. Eps. First up, we had worms on the A stage, the Josie punks that have been making waves in the scene for the last couple of months. Now listen, opening up a festival is a bit of a daunting task. People are still filling in, they're trying to find their bearings and figure out where everything is on the grounds, they're trying to find their friends and they're trying to settle in, see the grounds that are going to be their home for the next couple of hours. So, in reality, you aren't really playing to that many people at this point. But did this stop the worms from having the time of their lives? Absolutely not. A highlight of the set was someone handing out pool noodles, and the crowd who was participating to proceed to beat the ever-loving shit out of each other. There was this one lady dressed as Shinobu from Demon Slayer who was particularly having the time of her life. Like, I don't know if she just straight up embodied the character that she was playing, but she It was at this point though during this Moshboat that I realized that, oh fuck, dust is going to be a problem this year. Last year, I distinctly remember there being uh a lot more grass in the crowd areas. And that was not present this year. It's like I got a small taste of what I missed out at Orpicorpie from all those years from the conversations I've heard about the dust at that festival. Next up, we had Daisy Arson on the B-stage. This was their debut appearance as a full band, which caused a little bit of confusion since Daisy Arson had a bit of a cameo appearance during the Narrow set last year or Doom Fairy set. I think it was like a mashup between the Narrow and Doom Fairy during those sets, but Daisy Arson did make an appearance there, but when they were still performing as a solo hyperpop artist. That being said, the evolution of this band has been pretty crazy from the aforementioned hyperpop sound to what I would consider being more akin to a spirit box or a poppy type of sound. And holy shit, did Katie like collect the infinity stones of musicians for this band or something? Because we have Sean Gazeford on guitar, we have Ian Fundamanova on bass, and we have Steven Bossman on drums, all of which are stupidly talented musicians as well as veteran musicians and their own established bands at this point already. Kaylee herself is no joke. Her clean vocals are pristine and her harsh vocals are haunting as all fuck. There was also a feature from No Closures Estion, who coincidentally also happens to be Kaylee's husband. 10 out of 10. Would love to see this band take the stage again. I'm so excited for what's coming. After this set, I headed backstage to catch a breather, where a drunk wizard offered me a spell.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Yeah, I shall cross a spell on thee. If you're testicularly torsioning, you know who's important.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

After I left backstage with my testicles successfully not torsioned, I made my way back over to the A stage to catch Mana's Machine. Now, if you are a longtime viewer of this channel, you will know that Mana's Machine is hands down one of my favorite bands of all time. Anytime that I've caught footage of this band, you can hear my dumbass screaming in the background from behind the camera, and this time was no different. This band belongs on a big stage, and I will say that with my whole fucking chest. Rob's vocals are insane, and this band is just so unbelievably tight on stage. While I do think it was unfortunate that they played relatively early and attendance wasn't too great at this point, I do think that them being on the Halloween Pretoria stage is a good sign that the ball is rolling for this band again, especially after them having taken such a long hiatus. If you haven't heard or watched this band, please, please do yourself a favor and go check them out. Every time I do one of these videos, I'm like, I'm not gonna talk about every band. And then you know what I do?

unknown 11:43

I fucking talk about every band.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

I don't know, man. I'm just a sucker for the talent in this scene, and at my core, I've always just been a dude who was never able to shut up about music. That being said, the next band up was Middle Grounds. This is another band that's been on a relatively long hiatus, but has recently come back in full force with a new lineup, and goddamn, they have not dulled one bit. This set kind of marked a turning point in the day where people just started cutting loose, moshing, starting a wall of death, and just generally losing their shit. I'm pretty stoked I caught this moment from stage where Brandon used a sword to split a wall of death. It was pretty sweet. Just made me say, hell yeah, behind the camera. They were also supposed to have a fire dancer on stage who, um, unfortunately, due to a small accident, uh ended up almost setting the stage on fire. There was this moment of Brandon just standing there, staring at the fire, pouring a bottle of water over it, hoping that it would sort itself out, while the band continued playing around him, also in the hopes that this would sort itself out, until Ryon showed up uh with a fire extinguisher and put the fire out to save the day. I don't know if the heat made me dumber than usual, because I just stood there in front of the stage, staring at the fire, until Alex came and pulled me out of the way because I was in the line of the fire extinguisher looking back at some of the videos. So thank you, Alex. Thank you for having a brain for me. After avoiding a minor stage fire, I then got to watch SARS confront Jesus Christ about his taxes in the skankiest of skank spits. Skank skank skank. It's a fucking tongue twister. To none other than Fuzzy Gish. Guys, at this point, if you don't know who Fuzzy Gish is, what the fuck am I even supposed to say? It's punk, there's a trumpet, there's a beer bong made out of a host pipe and a traffic cone. It's damn good music, it's an even better show, and these guys have been delivering almost as long as I have been alive at this point. I don't know about you, but there's something particularly special about watching Bane get down and dirty in a scarpet and watching the grooviest circle I've ever seen in my life. And then it was on to my boys, my fucking boys, your cynical sanity. I'm going to level with you guys. When it comes to this band, I am biased as all fuck. Because, in my opinion, they are one of South Africa's most underrated bands, even within the metal scene itself. Over the years, I have seen and played with many, many iterations of this band. But this one, this one right here, is a force to be reckoned with. Mike's presence on stage is borderline terrifying. And I got to watch him prove why he is one of the best metal vocalists in the country. This shit was crushing. I genuinely think that this was a watershed moment for this band and just putting Durban back on the map in general. Homies from Durban, if you are watching, look at this band. This shit is possible. Make yourselves known. One of my highlights of the set was this poor dude getting his beard absolutely eviscerated by Kavesh in the pit. I need to pan over and catch my friend Lunghisi uh for recording the whole thing with this absolute shit-eating grin on his face. I'm childish. I know, but this will never not be funny to me. After the set, I just really needed a break. After running around and dealing with the heat, I was just already exhausted, and I needed to get my shit together to film Walk These Skies, who were one of the bands that we were hired to film on the day. Unfortunately, this meant that I missed the Tasers, who I have absolutely no doubt killed it. That band just fucking rips every time they play. I took the time to sit down, uh, grab a drink, and just have a chat with the YCS boys and get their feelings on the set that they had just played. And the general consensus being that it was a really surreal moment for all of them. It was somewhere during YCS's set, maybe a little bit earlier before, where this entity that became known only as the Pit Queen started making an appearance. This was an individual that just stood deadpan in the most violent of Marsh Pits, Circle Pits, Wall of Death, you name it. They just stood there. Deadpan expressions just while all this chaos went on around them. It was very, very entertaining to watch. And to the best of my understanding, they came out completely unscathed from all of this. I did not hear anything about them getting hurt. They even went so far as to knight someone in the audience. I just I fucking love metal shows, man. Like if it's not Magic the Gathering and Pits, it's shit like this. What the fuck's going on? Next up was Walk These Skies. Now, this is a band full of fucking clowns, but these clowns work harder than almost anyone else out there. Standing back upstage with these boys while they were prepping to go onto stage, just seeing how nervous they were. Everything that had led up to this point, and for them playing the biggest show of their careers so far. I couldn't help but feel a deep sense of pride for seeing how far these boys have come in such a short space of time. And getting to document this alongside one of the best videographers in the country was nothing short of a privilege to me. I was designated to follow the boys out on stage, who decided to do their walkout to the theme of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Because of course they fucking did. The whole experience from them sound checking and having people already gathering in the audience and singing the lyrics of the song they were using to soundcheck back to them, up until the point of walking out with them on stage, just is a testament to how beloved this band is becoming within the scene. Despite all the nerves before going on stage, these boys absolutely threw down and delivered what I think was one of the best sets that I've ever seen them play. And I've been to a lot of these boys' shows. The crowd's engagement with this band is actually insane, and the fan favorite Roboat during all the same made an appearance in full force with people shouting Roe so loudly you could actually hear it over the band set. It also needs to be mentioned that this is the only band of the night that got an encore. After this set, I just had a quick debrief with Johnno and the Walkie Skies boys. Uh grabbed some water, took a seat, and just processed everything that I'd watched unfold. There were four artists left before the headliner, and next up was Rough Magic, who you don't want to miss in any capacity, but fuck man, I just needed to catch my breath again. For those of you who aren't in the know, uh Ruff Magic is just a fucking experience. Uh what do I even describe this band as? This was probably like my second or third time having Roughed Magic Live. And every time they have done nothing but rock my shit. This time was no exception. Chaos. Pure bucking chaos on stage in the crowd in my ears. From Jimmy Glass just ditching his bass, handing it over to Sean to take over the song that they were busy playing, to go jump into the crowd, to features from Brandon from Middle Grounds, to Rob from Manna's Machine. I don't think there was anyone there having more fun than the boys on stage. God, I think I actually took Beer straight to the eyeball, like during the set, if I'm gonna be honest. Now, in case you're unaware of how Rough Magic closes off a set, uh, let me explain. They have this song called Wax Wizard. And the entire point of the song is for them to slowly hand over their instruments to other people so that they can escape the stage. You know that whole fantasy that you have as a musician in the crowd where your favorite band asks you, hey, who knows how to play the song? Imagine that. But eventually the whole fucking band is just swapped out. My favorite person being included on the stage was Danny, the frontman of Drunk Wizard. Now, I don't know if Danny has ever played to a crowd that big before. I've been to a couple of drunk wizard shows, I've filmed a couple of drunk wizard shows, and they are rowdy. But he handled it really, really well. There was also the inclusion of a lad named Dexter, who is the guitarist of one of our newest up-and-coming bands in South Africa called All Out Problems. They've got some cool stuff coming up. I think you should go check them out as well. But he got thrown into the deep end as well. I hope you had fun, my dude. But all of this, all of these things come together to show why this band is in such high demand, why they're such a hot commodity within the music scene at the moment. And if you don't know Rough Magic, you just go fucking solve that. Go fix that right fucking now. As a side note, I also ate shit really badly during the set. I tripped over one of the barricades. I was running, I'm not entirely sure where to, uh, but I misjudged, tripped over a barrier. Hit the ground really fucking hard. Um, I'm okay though, mostly. It's largely just my pride that got hurt. After this, I caught a bit of Humanebula, who are just as tight as always, and they're sporting a bit of a new lineup as well as having I think Chris Zen from Volvadinia sessioning for them. I think for that show specifically, I don't know if he's gonna be featuring on any of the shows in the future, but he was there for this one. Also, Gareth's makeup was fucking terrifying. I every time I saw him come out of the dark, I was terrified. I'm gonna be br Dude, what the fuck? Definitely the most like unsettling face paint. There actually was one other person who had like a mangled face mask. Oh that's PH Fat was this year's equivalent of, I guess, like Jack Parrow. I have been humming uh if he can't dance, then he can't fuck neither, pretty much the whole week. Unfortunate vocal stem, probably not the worst one that I've ever had. There was so much bass during this set that I actually thought that I was going to throw up at one point. And I I don't know if that was like a general consensus throughout the crowd, but my dumbass uh leaned up against one of the bass bins to try and get a shot, and I just had my fucking guts rearranged. And then last up on the local lineup, we had Doom Trigger. These boys had flown in from Cape Town, having played Cape Town Halloween party the previous night. And then they just fucking tore the place apart. Like, holy shit. I have seen this band like once before, I think at like Emilith Fest earlier in the year, and it astounds me that they could have gotten this much better in the span of like what five months? Can I count? It's been like eight months. Emilith Fest was February. It's been like seven months, maybe. Uh fuck they were good then, but the performance that I saw on Saturday night was actually fucking diabolical as to how much better they could have gotten in such a short space of time and how well they delivered on every aspect of their performance. And then we were on to our international headliners. Silverstein. So you know when you're getting into alternative music, you usually find a few bands and then you go down a pipeline of certain bands that lead into other bands. And a lot of the time what ends up happening is you go down such a specific path that you kind of miss a lot of the other bands. That, unfortunately for me, was Silverstein. I had never listened to their music before, despite people having asked me to, like, yours prior to this. And what ended up happening was I kept putting it off and kept saying, Oh, I'll go just listen to them tomorrow. Until the day before the event, and I was just like, oh fuck it, it's gonna be a surprise for me too. That's gonna be my first experience. The band is watching them live. Now I was lucky enough to be in the media pit right up close for the first three songs of their set before getting booted out of the media pit. And I'm gonna be honest with you, I was so taken aback by the quality of this band, I almost got no decent footage of them. Songs like Stress, The Artist, Afterglow, The Arsenist have all since been added to my playlist, but I would argue that these songs sound better live than their studio recordings. Last year when The Devil Wears Prada was here, I didn't really get into the mosh, but I didn't really take my camera into the crowd, anything like that. I was a little bit nervous, my camera was flat, I didn't have enough storage. Uh this year, however, I was I was in that shit. I was fucking in that pit with the camera. Getting footage of the crowd, I can see just how much this band meant to the people who would come out to watch them. Finally getting to watch child heroes from the early 2000s in a country that they never thought that they would get to see them in. After an exhausting day of killer local bands and just devastating heat, I watched South Africans pour everything they had into losing it watching this band. I don't know if it was just me, but I got the impression that Silverstein were genuinely blown away by the reception that they got in our country. There was just something about the way that they addressed the audience, about the vibes leading up to the show, and that even the fact that at the time of recording this, they've already released their own aftermovie of the show. So from my side, I just want to say thank you to Silverstein. Thank you for showing such a sincere love to our country, to an audience that is starved of internationals of this genre. And I guarantee you that the love that you showed our country will never be forgotten. And after all of this, the biggest shout-out goes out to Rob for pulling all of this together, for making an effort to bring sick bands through to the country and just putting on the best possible shows. A massive thank you has to go out to that man and everyone involved in making Halloween Victoria and Cape Town a reality. If it sounds like I am singing the praises of every local artist on this lineup, it's because I am. I'm gonna steal a quote from Rafielware's Text in the City article here for just for a second. Halloween 2026 was won by the local bands. Each one showed up and reminded everyone of the value of following local music. I agree with her wholeheartedly. Last year I left with a message when a band like Prada comes through to South Africa, it raises the bar for everyone involved. This year, our bands, our people, showed everyone how high that bar actually is. I think that this is a reminder that our scene has an incredible amount of potential. But more importantly, that our artists are already capable of standing alongside international acts with the right push, the right coverage, and more exposure to a wider audience. There is no reason South Africa couldn't become a more established destination on an international touring route. But that's going to take work from everyone involved. Artists, venues, media platforms, audiences. They're all going to play a role in getting us there.