One river, three stages, more than 30 live music and comedy acts and 2000 festival goers with a passion for some of South Africa’s best music in common – get yourself ready for Up the Creek 2010.

The line up includes: The Dirty Skirts, The Rudimentals, Bed on Bricks, Flat Stanley, Dan Patlansky, Hot Water, The Black Cat Bones, Andra, Ryno Velvet, Dave Ferguson, Piet Botha, Akkedis, Ashtray Electric, Van Coke Kartel, Taxi Violence, The Pretty Blue Guns, Taxi Violence, Mr Cat and The Jackal, Willem Welsyn and the Sunrise Toffies, the Plastics, Fox Comet, an AC/DC Tribute slot and the debut performance of The Gods, with Albert Frost, Schalk van der Merwe on bass, Parri Luckhoff on vocals and Francois Kruger on drums.

Creekers can look forward to the return of Corné and Twakkie, together with a selection of some seriously funny comedians, including Dave Levinson. In typical Up the Creek tradition we exercise volition be running the main stage, the river stage and the all-night-long Breede River bar stage once again.

For the die-hard Creekers, we are putting on a show at the bar stage on the Thursday night. You can claim the best camping spot and enjoy an extra day Up the Creek.

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Every year, musicians from all over the world gather by Touareg tribesman to enjoy one of the most unique festivals in the world. The Festival au Desert will enjoy its 10th anniversary in January 2010, on a small patch of the Sahara, in place called Essakane in Mali. The 3 day music festival will be held from 7 – 9 January in 2010.

The Touareg nomads traditionally amass once a year to exchange news, do a little trading as well as share songs and poems. In the past 10 years, musicians from other parts of Mali as well as Europe, and even as far as Canada, have been invited for the festival. In 2008, you could watch Inuit perform alongside a reggae band from the Ivory Coast and blues musicians from Mali. This is truly a “world music” event. While more commercialization is creeping in, Essakane is 2 hours from Timbuktu and very remote. It will subsist a while before you can really call it “a sell out”.

The festival is an adventurous “draw your own tent” affair with little, to no electricity, so leave the curling iron at home. But several tour agencies who specialize in festival tours and/or Mali make it easier to get to and enjoy.

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