HEAT Festival Day 1 - Giuliette Price & Karla Van Solms

Kicking off on the 6th of August, HEAT Winter Arts Festival has turned the city of Cape Town into a buzz with culture from art, theatre, comedy, music and talks by industry professionals to keep everyone warm this winter. 

Cape Town has plenty of talent in all art forms and at times it can feel as if there aren’t any platforms to help showcase that very talent, so the creation of the HEAT Winter Arts Festival brings a refreshing spotlight to the creatives of the city across the including industries and even more so for those that might not have the biggest names in the game. 

HEAT in collaboration  with Quiet Life as curators of the music for the festival have created stages for various artists across the city during the 10 days. With VERVE documenting the course festival, I had the pleasure of attending the opening night of the performances held at Clarke’s Bar and Dining Room, featuring Karla Van Solms and Giuliette Price. 

First on the stage was Karla, someone who has taken the leap of leaving home in Coffee Bay in the search of achieving her music dream in a city like Cape Town. With just her guitar she managed to create an intimate atmosphere making it feel as if it was a special performance just for you. Going hand in hand with her performance were her deeply reflective lyrics about her feelings and experiences as  a musician, like on her song Pieces of You off her latest EP, Feel. If you weren’t able to see her live this time, I’d highly recommend trying to find out where she'll be next. 

Following after Karla was Giuliette Price. After making her debut on the biggest stage of her career so far at Cape Town International Jazz Festival, she experienced a setback that would put her out for the following three months, after finding out she had contracted TB. Thankfully she has managed to fight her back to a point where she’s healthy enough to get back on stage. For someone who had recently suffered from such an illness, if she didn’t say so in the beginning, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to tell with the performance she gave us.

Accompanied on stage by her band, the two Luke’s on bass and drums, she gave us a powerful and memorable performance that even had some people up on their feet getting involved. Even giving us a performance of her upcoming single, gabby, she made during her forced time off. I’m glad that this setback hasn’t derailed a promising career, I would take any chance to see her live again. 

Recording music in a studio can at times make artists disconnected with the people listening to their songs. Live performances give the artists a chance to gauge how people in the crowd react to their music whether it be released or unreleased and also be able to interact with people who support them. Thanks to HEAT Winter Arts Festival and Quiet Life, Cape Town’s musicians have a platform to get their name out there and hone in on their skills, which can be hard to come by at times.