South Africa will get its first multi-genre electronic “mashed-up” festival this year. The event will include music, art and technology, hosted by Hilltop Live.
The festival, called XooXity, has been inspired by South African author Lauren Beukes’s science-fiction novel, Zoo City, says Hilltop Live.
The already-established Tech4Africa conference will make up the tech component of the event, in addition to the music and art showcase. XooXity will take place on 2 and 3 May.
As usual, the Tech4Africa event will feature technology entrepreneurs and start-ups as its core focus.
Hilltop Live president Carel Hoffmann says creativity, technology, music and art are “fusing in many new formats”.
The inaugural tech/music/art festival will take place in Johannesburg at Mary Fitzgerald Square and in Cape Town at the Zip Zap Circus. The Cape Town event won’t include Tech4Africa and takes place on 1 May.
Tickets for Tech4Africa will cost R1 000 and include access to music and art stalls. Other tickets will cost R500.
XooXity appears to be styled on the US South by Southwest (SXSW) interactive festival that takes place in Austin, Texas each year around March.
That event is a combination of film, music and emerging technologies and has a reputation as a “breeding ground” for new ideas in the technology world. The festival includes trade shows, speakers, a start-up accelerator and plenty of parties.
Last year’s SXSW festival saw the CEOs of Airbnb and Foursquare take to the stage, with Elon Musk delivering a keynote. — (c) 2014 NewsCentral Media
