Once again Joburg invaded Durban for the 2012 Vodacom Durban July at the Greyville racecourse. As expected, the weekend had drama, tension, tears, laughter and of course drunkardness of its own. We flew down to Durban Friday afternoon and I almost missed my flight thanks to having to wait for a friend’s dress. After begging the airport personnel to let me through the gate, I found out that the plane was delayed by 40 min, so much for running, nagging and stressing. What became more depressing was finding out that most people were given cellphones with their invite from Vodacom while my goodie bag was missing one. *Sigh* Special treatment nne… Phantsi ngama politics maan?! Nevertheless, we went down and I survived the first night in Durbs by attending Minnie Dlamini’s birthday party at the Oyster Box hotel.
Me and my stylist team via C Squared
Race day had a different kind of drama, first getting an oufit delivered to my hotel, exchanging a friends dress and being told, “you can’t wear that outfit with old shoes, go buy new ones by my stylist”. Yes, Deni had a stylist although at the last hour, Carducci came to my rescue to dress me up in C Squared attire baby. This is after I had requested the hotel to iron my shirt as I was already planning to wear my back-up clothes, only for my shirt to make its way to my room a day after the event.
Pick n Pay seemed to trend in Durban
I finally made it into Greyville after some ticket mix up that saw me pay to get in, it’s been a minute since I paid to get into anything *no pun there*. I had access to the Vodacom marquee and The MTV Base/Lifestyle Oasis marquee but both of those were not VVIP as I thought but I did manage to get an upgrade. As much as the Miller marquee was also a place to be, the organisers failed to allocate a ticket as agreed on day with phone calls being ignored to no end.
Claire Mawisa
Last year the Lifestyle Oasis marquee was the place to be but this time around Vodacom upped its game with Black Coffee performing with an orchestra and Arno Casterns performing just before Coffee took over. In general I had a fair experience at the Durban July. A big thank you to Vodacom and the Total Exposure team for their hospitality. Enough ranting for now, take a look at some peeps I bumped into during the Vodacom Durban July:
Live presenter Luthando in a GJC
Dineo Moeketsi also in a Gert-Johan Coetzee
Azania Mosaka
Channel O’s SK had a wardrobe malfunction, he MC’d at the Lifestyle Oasis marquee.
Scandal’s Clint Brink performed at the Lifestyle Oasis marquee, he’s dressed by Palse Homme.
Singer Donald Moatshe also went with Palse Homme.
YFM personality Ntando Masina was thereshooting her reality TV show with her sister Hlelo, they were dressed by Sylvester Falata.
Muso Bucie bought a simple dress and added the fancy stuff herself, she performed with Black Coffee in the Vodacom marquee. Heard her complementing Dineo Moeketsi’s singing.
Kuli Roberts was also MC at the MTV Base/Lifestyle Oasis Marquee. Apparently she fell from stage earlier on after a slip but like a pro she is, she continued to MC even after a bleeding knee.
Like I said, Pick n Pay was trending, celeb blogger and Trans Africa station manager, Mika Stefano wore an outfit made out of plastic, papers and some Ultramel boxes.
By: Just Denis
