In 2003 Witchdoctor Records realized there was a serious lack of quality alternative events happening in South Africa. The more commercial and main stream avenues were well taken care of but there was no representation by the alternative scene.

Witchfest Festival was born……

A truly unique idea of the ROAMING FESTIVAL was finally in AFRICA, with this festival we took the BEST international acts across SA along with SA’s finest.

2003 - Kicking off the first in the series was The Haunted from Sweden, this was followed by Entombed and the the years biggest one SEPULTURA. The year was rounded off with a small local Witchfest X-treme in December showcasing the X-Treme side of the SA scene.

2004 - Heavy weights such as SOULFLY stormed through the continent, along with a follow up tour by Entombed. KONKHRA also managed to swing by for some shows before the year was up, this when we could get them out of shark diving cages.

2005 - A slightly lower key year for the fest. We hosted the East Coast festival which was a LOCAL only fest and our first ever Hardcore Witchfest which featured Neshamah and Most Precious Blood (USA). Being the first hardcore fest the turn out was suspect in some areas of SA, but overall a good festival. We even survived a shoot out at the local pub while trying to eat some curry in Durban.

2006 - This year was spent experimenting and developing a LOCAL angle to the festival and working with SA bands to see if the festival was sustainable as a LOCAL only event. While both the East & Coast festivals were successful, they lacked the impact of the international / local combination.

2007 - The most disappointing year in the HISTORY of Witchfest. This is the FIRST time a Witchfest had to be canceled. It was doomed from day one with bad partnerships and poor support from areas and people that should have been working with us. In the end the festival was moved from KZN to the Wolmer Events Arena in Pretoria (thanks to the van der Walt’s for their help). By this point we were fighting hard and in the end the battle was aborted. Too many factors were placed before us that would have led to a festival we would not be proud of..

So rather than charge people to come to something we were NOT 100% happy with, we pulled the plug. It was a VERY expensive lesson and one we will never repeat.

While more than 29 festivals have taken place since 2003, a new era of WITCHFEST’s had finally arrived.

2008 was the FIRST time in the HISTORY of the festival that there was CAMPING. Instead of moving around the country and going from city to city. We have opted for a 4 day camping festival. We had Two main stages. The AKB Main Stage and the WITCHFEST Main Stage, food stalls and international headliner CARCASS.

2009 is a big year for us. We aim to take Witchfest to the next level. Keep an eye on the news for more updates.

If you have ever been to Ozzfest (UK & USA) or Download Festival (UK) you will understand the type of festival we are trying to create.

This is NOT Woodstock, Splashy Fen, White Mountain, Oppikoppi or any other festival (no disrespect)..

This is WITCHFEST and it is truly unique…

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