This year’s Rockspaaider school bands contest, sponsored by
JIP and MK89, is on its way.
Rockspaaider is a proudly South African national battle-of-the-bands competition aimed at reaching the Afrikaans youth market in an exciting and engaging format.
JIP, the weekly national youth publication, has always believed in getting behind positive and uplifting initiatives for the young Afrikaner. Donnay Torr, editor of
JIP, comments “Music is a common element that unites today’s Afrikaans youth and this passion for local culture and music is what drives this competition. We’re excited to be on the frontline of nurturing and promoting new local talent. The Rockspaaider initiative has proven to be overwhelmingly popular with our readers and dovetails neatly with the culture and energy of the
JIP brand, which appears weekly in
Beeld,
Die Burger and Volksblad”.
To be eligible for the contest, bands must perform three original Afrikaans songs each. Each aspiring band must be made up of at least three members (not more than seven) and must play all their own instruments.
The competition is divided into two regional components and both finals take place at the end of September. The northern finals again take place at the wildly popular Aardklop festival (Potchefstroom).
Finals will be held in eight regions - Pretoria, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Eastern and Western Cape, the Boland, as well as the Western Cape platteland and Northern platteland. The regional finalists all go through to two finals. The two national winners get studio time to record an eight track CD and their own music video.
Entries close on 11 May 2007. For more information, check out
www.jip.co.za or
www.mk89.co.za