Ten venues, one day, one mission – and Stellenbosch is at the heart of it.

Galpalooza, South Africa’s all-female-fronted music festival, returns for its fourth edition on Women’s Day (Sunday 9 August), with the Stellenbosch leg set to light up the Daisy Jones Bar.

Festival director Jolene East says the festival was born from a simple realisation: women in South Africa’s music industry deserve a seat at the table.

“If we don’t create the change, then what would we leave for fem-fronted acts in the future?” she says. “Women have a voice, our stories matter and we do deserve a seat at the table.”

On a mission

The spark came during a conversation around a braai, when a friend remarked that female musicians in South Africa are “unprofessional” and should “try harder to get onto line-ups”.

For East, also a musician, the comment cut deep. “All I heard was ‘if women had the same opportunities as men, it would be a very different ball game.’”

The assumption that women aren’t working hard enough – writing hard enough, playing hard enough – struck her, not as a choice but as a symptom of a scene offering no support.

From that moment, building a community for overlooked female artists became her mission.

East began gathering like-minded musicians who shared the same struggles, pooling wisdom and experience to shift the perception of what women in music are capable of. Galpalooza – starting with just 83 ticket holders in 2023 – was the result.

The line-up at the venue on Summerhill Wine Estate is a full day of music running from noon to late, featuring acts including Deadman’s Dungarees, Magé, Elé Jacobs, Emmylou, KatzTheSingR, NORRA, The Honeymooners Band, The Betsies, and Crowfoot, among others.

Stellenbosch connection

East says the Daisy Jones Bar partnership runs deep.

“We have worked together with Jessica Botha and Conrad Jamneck for years now – more than a decade,” she says. “We absolutely adore them, a real power couple that gets stuff done.”

But Stellenbosch is just one stop on a national tour of pop-up parties and ticketed events.

A warm-up party is in Pretoria on Saturday 8 August, followed by nine events on Women’s Day, spanning Pretoria, Edenvale, Meyerton, Johannesburg, Knysna, and Secunda.

East says choosing Women’s Day was deeply intentional. “It’s a date that signifies that – we’re here! It’s a date to celebrate what we as women go through in our lives, to band together and say ‘Wow! I never thought women could do so much’,” she says.

“Why not add some beautiful melodies to this beautiful day?”

Buy your tickets

What sets Galpalooza apart is its equal-pay model: proceeds are shared equally among all performing artists. “The equality when it comes to payment of the artists just shows that we’re all in the same boat, we’re all working towards the same goal,” East explains.

This year’s festival faces headwinds. After contacting 350 corporate companies, none agreed to sponsor. Ticket sales remain slow and East is candid about the reality.

“If we have a line-up of 60 plus fem-artists and we’re not even sitting on 60 tickets a month before the festival, how can we actually say there’s support in the industry for women?” she asks. “Numbers don’t lie.”

Still, East remains resolute. “So we’ll keep on pushing,” she says. “Music is supposed to open your mind, see the world from a different perspective and bring hope. We want to sing the things you can’t say out loud.”

Tickets for the Stellenbosch event at Daisy Jones Bar are R250 online and R300 at the door, with children under 12 free. Tickets can be bought online through Quicket.