Rap pilgrimage for Back To The City
Johannesburg's biggest hip hop festival, Back To The City, makes a return to Johannesburg on Freedom Day, April 27. The festival has grown over the years and this year it aims to attract 20 000 people after 17 000 people attended it last year in Mary Fitzgerald Square.
HEADLINER. Reason will be leading the pack at this year’s Back To The City Festival. Pictures: Supplied.
Back To The City has become an iconic day nationwide as it is the biggest outlet and platform for the hip hop community.
This year organiser Osmic Menoe has left no stone unturned to make sure the festival is more successful than ever.
“We started marketing this year’s one two months after last year’s edition,” Menoe said.
“We have had great support from television and more recently radio, and at some points we were trending on social media. We have distributed over 35 000 fliers in addition to posters. We want to make sure that the festival becomes a major success once again.”
Traditionally the hip hop festival is a whole-day event featuring South African hip hop artists who only perform one or two songs. It will change a little bit this year, with artists given more space to perform.
“It is important that fans get to see more from their favourite artists and hence this year the artists will be given more time to perform, with the opportunity to perform three to four songs,” Menoe said. “We serve the hip hop community and it is amazing to see hip hop alone filling up Mary Fitzgerald Square. It just goes to show the importance and potential of the genre to go to greater heights.”
