CONFESSION #001

I once spent an entire festival pretending I remembered someone because they greeted me like we had survived a war together.

They knew my name.

They knew where I was from.

They even remembered what I had been wearing the last time we met.

I had absolutely no idea who they were.

Naturally, instead of admitting this, I committed to the lie.

We hugged.

We took photos.

I introduced them to my friends as “an absolute legend”.

At one point, we had a surprisingly emotional conversation about how good it was to see each other again.

By Sunday morning, I genuinely considered them one of my closest festival friends.

I still do not know their name.

They are still saved in my phone as “Trance Guy Maybe”.

Somewhere at a Cape Town festival, 2024
Submitted by: A Terrible Person

Stoic

Stoic is the voice behind ftponline.co.za. A festival veteran turned behind the scenes observer, with years spent attending events, DJing, selling tickets and eventually seeing what happens on the other side of the dancefloor. He writes about South African festivals, psytrance, electronic music, festival culture and the strange humans who make all of it worthwhile.