Naidoo said Cotton Fest has always been rooted in creativity, community, and cultural celebration.
Music festival Cotton Fest has come to an end.
Bianca Naidoo, who was the late Riky Rick’s partner, confirmed this in a statement about the festival’s disbandment after seven years due to an internal dispute.
“The differences in the festival’s vision and purpose among the two parties [have] made it clear to our family and the team that concluding this chapter is the most realistic path forward,” said Naidoo in the statement.
Party one is understood to be Naidoo and the Makhado family. The other party is the shareholders, who are believed to be Cotton Fest co-founder and director, Alain Ferrier of Beanstalk.
Beanstalk is an events production company with at least 14 years of industry experience.
On its website, the company states that in 2018, Ferrier partnered with the late Riky Rick to create one of South Africa’s most popular youth-focused music and culture festivals.
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Beanstalk and Cotton Fest
Speaking to The Citizen, the Beanstalk team said Ferrier is unable to respond to the questions shared with him at this stage.
However, in their response to this publication, the Beanstalk team said Ferrier is no longer a director and has not held that role for some time.
“The press statement does, however, appear to contain various inaccuracies,” the Beanstalk team said about Naidoo’s statement.
Cotton Fest was founded by Riky Rick in 2018, with its first edition being held the following year.
Real name Rikhado Makhado, Riky Rick died of suicide in early 2022. Despite his death, the festival continued to be hosted under Naidoo’s stewardship.
In her statement, Naidoo said CottonFest has always been rooted in creativity, community, and cultural celebration, and has focused on providing a platform for youth to shine.
In an interview with News24 three years ago, Ferrier said he and Naidoo want to continue with the same vision that Riky Rick had.
“Bianca and I feel that it is important to continue the reason, which is to give a platform to youth and bring quality of entertainment to a young group of consumers,” Ferrier said at the time.
But unless something terrible happens, like another pandemic , or there’s a reason why we can’t continue, we will look to continue with Cotton Fest for the foreseeable future,” he added.
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Continuing in other forms
The Tuesday statement from Naidoo stated that although the festival will not continue under its existing structure, the Creative Programme, launched in 2025, will continue to build on the initiatives it has already undertaken to create opportunities for young talent throughout the year.
In 2023, Riky Rick’s family launched the Riky Rick Foundation.
“Our hope is that the Riky Rick Foundation for the Promotion of Artivism will inspire individuals and organisations to care for young people, for mental health and well-being as well as participate in bringing about the changes we want in society – in essence – to stay shining,” said Riky Rick’s mother, Louisa Zondo.
The foundation has created a place to respond to Riky’s rallying call to care for young people.
“Please believe in young people. Give them as many opportunities as they need to prove themselves. At any cost,” Riky tweeted eight days before his death. This call now guides the foundation.
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