The 11th annual South African Music Conference (SAMC) returns to Kwa-Zulu Natal this week. The brainchild of the legendary DJU (Deejays Unite) – which comprises DJ Fresh, Oskido, Vinny da Vinci, Christos and Greg Maloka – the SAMC is powered by the Department of Arts and Culture as well as the City of Durban and will take place from Thursday to Sunday.
Previously held in downtown Joburg before it moved to Durban for a few years, the SAMC, which coincides with the Vodacom Durban July, has found a home in eThekwini.
This year’s conference will start at Claremont’s Comfort Zone on Thursday before heading to Nuz Vegas in uMlazi on Friday, while there will be the insanely popular Mother Of All Parties event at Kings Park Stadium on Saturday and a demo listening session at Inanda’s Under the Moon on Sunday.
As Maloka, who is also the managing director of Kaya FM, says: “This is our 11th year and the conference is going strong so it’s important that we acknowledge the people who have been there from the beginning. Like the Arts and Culture Department and the city of Durban.”
There is a cover charge for The Mother of all Parties – described by Maloka as “a tradition and a showcase to say all the things that are talked about at the conference are not just theory” – which features a hip hop section (with AKA, Cassper Nyovest and more) and a house floor (Black Coffee, DJU, Ralf Gum etc). But the conference will be free of charge and dealt with on a first come, first served basis.
“Through the (sponsor) partnerships, we have been able to make certain aspects of the conference free,” explains the former YFM head honcho and DJ who goes by the name Greg The Maestro, “because a lot of the earlier conferences we held were urban-based so people could pay the fees. But that sort of thinking becomes limiting in places like uMlazi because a lot of those kids can’t part with the money to pay for a conference. Now we’re going into people’s backyards for a full day.”
The SAMC will feature workshops with topics like The Digital Age/Digital Distribution, Festivals and Live Events as well as Samro’s (Southern African Music Rights Organisation) workshop on publishing rights. Established music industry players like Zakes Bantwini, DJ Shimza and more will be panellists in some of the workshops.
In the past decade, there have been several music conferences across the country so what makes the concept so popular?
“The format of information-sharing like this is relatively new to young, black people,” says Maloka. “A lot of information shared in the past was through institutionalised and formalised education. Everyone has a different attitude towards formal education, but this conference is a bit more real, up-close- and-personal and happens in a language that people understand.”
• The South African Music Conference takes place in Durban from Thursday to Sunday. For more information, see www.djusa.co.za.