ES ROCK FEST

What does ES Fest stand for?

"Elaborate Sound Festival"

{We wanna elaborate and make a fuss about music that matters!
Excuse the use of a pun (…as is usually said when using a pun) but we want nothing but 'sound' sound…}

What is the ES Fest?

"...a celebration of rock's soul…"
"…a gathering for the like-minded…"

It's a seasonal ('every-season') ROCK festival held in order to showcase, celebrate, expose and get together at one awesome venue…the best Melodic Rock music from all over S.A.

The ES Rock Fest runs over an ordinary weekend that is packed with plenty of rock-agenda and is broken down into three independent 'events' that span over a Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

It's a quality rock experience!

 The ES event categories are as follows:

(Each event primarily focuses around the headlining band of the night!) 

• Hard Rock Friday
  This evening would host a selection of grunge, hard rock, hardcore and the slightly more aggressive styles of rock!
• Rock n Roll Saturday
  A night of the best Melodic Rock of the Season! Ranging from punk rock, pop rock, alternative rock, rock 'n roll and pretty much every kind of soul-moving rock you can get...
• Sunny Rock Sunday
  This part of the ES Rock Fest is slightly different from the other two parts. Sunny Rock Sunday takes place on Sunday morning till late noon and features mostly an 'Acoustic Rock' line-up...
  This promises to be the most laid-back part of the festival…After a night or two of hardcore-head-bang-punk-rocking…a couple of great acoustic bands seasoned with some sunshine will get us comphy & relaxed into noon… we could say; "the easy-people-lounge-about" with live, mellow rock that cools down a casual sunset...

(N.B. Quality is key! Although fun and entertainment is essential to this festival, quality is no exception! One very essential trait of the ES Fest will be its strong emphasis on the quality of production especially in the area of sound. Are you not tired of countless nights spent bearing out poorly presented 'shows' that seem only to get your listening attention because of the over-cranking of well-intended, but, drastically unfortunate noise-blows to the brain… resulting in nothing more than aural overload! I've seen it too often, even tight bands plunge to their ruin when lack of attention is focused on this area! )

Where did the ES Fest begin and where is it going?

To give a little background...The very first ES Fest was launched last year 2007 August 31 at Tempo's.
It got some coverage on Pretoria's Tuks Fm and Joburg's UjFm and featured artists and bands like Laurie Lavine, Scarlet Box,
Running with Scissors, Elaborate Station and Josey Fields. We also had the privilege of interviewing some of these artists on Ujfm. 
This particular ES Fest was focused around female fronted, mainly rock talent... The event was fun and successful enough to strike an official round two go-aheads!

 We are currently refining the ES festival so that at the turn of each season… we'll end up with another elaborate rock show that can serve as a growing platform for the most exciting reoccurring live music showcasing in SA. 

Our annual ES goal endeavor is:

Spring ES Rock Fest
Summer ES Rock Fest
Autumn ES Rock Fest
Winter ES Rock Fest

When is the next ES Rock Fest taking place?

24, 25, 26 October – Spring ES Rock Fest – keep watching for details
30, 31 Jan, 1 Feb – Summer ES Rock Fest

             
Get involved…from audience to management…. We wanna make some music and have a rock of a time in the making…

 

 

 

We cannot keep what we are unwilling or unable to give away. The authentic sister/brotherhood shares its life not by telling others what to believe or by giving them helpful tools to make it in the world, but simply by being together as a sign in the world that love is possible. As we grow increasingly aware of our own wounds, we will vulnerably open ourselves to one another, confessing both our weaknesses and our strengths. Thus, we will find ourselves being liberated to become more deeply at home with God, with ourselves and with each other.

Empty space tends to create fear. As long as our minds, hearts and hands are occupied we can avoid confronting the painful questions, to which we never gave much attention and which we do not want to surface. "Being busy" has become a status symbol, and most people keep encouraging each other to keep their body and mind in constant motion. Occupation and not empty space is what most of us are looking for. When we are not occupied we become restless. We even become fearful when we do not know what we will do the next hour, the next day or the next year. Then occupation is called a blessing and emptiness a curse.

Many telephone conversations start with the words: "I know you are busy, but..." and we would confuse the speaker and even harm our reputation were we to say, "Oh no, I am completely free, today, tomorrow and the whole week." Our client might well lose interest in one who has so little to do.                       Henri Nouwen

ELABORATE STATION'S  BACKGROUND

Foreword

We're a band with diversity….

We're a band of people containing blood in our veins…

We find our sanity, our unity through the expression of our music….

 

the history

Since Monya began learning to talk, singing became a part of her expression!

Having a strong musical background in her home environment that flourishing with music appreciation, she found herself (even at a young age) transforming her search for answers to life into lyrics and melody… 

Monya grew up in Centurion, Pretoria with her small, but close nit family.

Her Primary School years were spent at Springvale Primary
where on her final year she won the 1995 Springvale Primary Music Award. This occurrence was a serious faith boost that encouraged her to believe that anything is possible and that no dream is too big for His Grace... 

With a lot of help and encouragement from friends and family she began her quest of musicianship…

Hookin' up some guitar lessons and penning some thoughts, her discovery for the love of guitar began the development of her unique sound and songwriting.

Monya'a musical experimentation was steadily begining to 'snowball'...

Shortly after came the birth of a project called Crystal Iris for which Monya and some friends produced some demo tracks and gigged around at a few places using the back tracks they produced and a guitar or bass (mostly one or two man acts)..

The project had potential but still…something was lacking….off coarse.... a band!…

Monya then began her second and current project "Elaborate Station" in which she's invested countless hours into new and fresh songwriting...