"Rising Star Competition" Interview with Partytime Playroom

PP: Partytime Playroom started in 2020. It is an event brand that focuses on creating innovative, inclusive experiences and ideas that are tailored to South Africa’s creative street culture. Through our events, Playroom is a platform that curates’ spaces for young people and emerging artists to exhibit and expand their artistry.

PP: We believe there is a need, especially post-COVID, for a collective that looks at ways to enhance the skills, talents and ideas of emerging creativity. We have not seen a creative street culture the way we did during the Braam kid peak on the corner of Juta Street which no longer exists in the way that it used to; where all types of creatives and young creatives were connecting and ideating on the streets of Juta. The youth today don’t have that same type of experience as we did. Playroom is about innovating ideas like the Rising Star concept which invests back into establishing and creating access for young artists and musicians to ideate and create further within their passions. While at the same time including fashion and art.

PP: Partytime Playroom focuses on finding solutions to grow emerging creativity in constructive and beneficial ways while at the same time really focusing on how to redefine and refine South African Hip Hop and music.

PP: People have always connected through music, art and fashion, creative or not, these three creative mediums form community, and connection and are tools which people can define who they are through the music they listen to, the art they enjoy, the way they dress, and many other ways in which people express their identity. People benefit from these mediums by finding, being a part of and building community.

PP: Partytime Playroom has evolved quite a bit since 2020. The concept has refined itself in theory and in practice, especially since our last event in September at the end of 2022. Our intention and plan of action for the long term are clearer, and we are excited to see what is to come.

PP: The concept of Rising Star came to fruition at the end of last year at our last Playroom event in September 2022. We launched the concept and idea through the event which took place in the daytime and was activated by Archive and Converse. This concept proved to work and has encouraged us to continue with it. It was inspired by our love and passion for young talent and most importantly our love for music. We remembered what it was like being a young creative and not having or sometimes not knowing the tools to elevate our artistry and furthermore for our artistry to exist in the spaces we wished for them to. This inspired us to create Rising Star. A space to play creatively while at the same time refining the journey of the next talent to come.

PP: The music industry and climate currently is cutthroat as it has always been and for a while were lost post-Covid due to all the changes and shifts that came. The significance of Rising Star in our current music industry is that there are not many spaces that are concerned with the upliftment of emerging creativity when so much time was lost on our own creativity, when in fact spaces like this are exactly what our music industry needs in order to inspire creativity and evolve structures within an industry that can be fuelled by ego more than passion.

PP: The reception around the event has been positive. From the applicants to the RSVPS, the feedback has been positive. We got over 200 applicants and were overwhelmed by the engagement. This encourages us to keep building Rising Star further.

PP: We believe that curating spaces which cater to forming community and subculture are what makes a good event. A space which people can relate to; through how they dress, the music they listen to or like, the way the space looks and feels, and the people they want to interact with. It comes down to the simple human need to connect and form a community with which you can identify and at the same time form identity all while having a great time. Music, Fashion, and Art are what create these feelings of a good event and most importantly energy. The energy a curator puts into a space is the energy that will be experienced by consumers. However, it is also important to be mindful that there is also no such thing as the best event because what is best for us might not be best for everyone. The end goal is to ensure that there are experiences which cater to all.

PP: We believe Shelflife has always been a space, brand and creative hub which has been relatable in a street culture narrative in South Africa, in the way in which they have been a part of the creative ecosystem in South Africa. They have built and contributed to this ecosystem by utilising these three mediums; fashion, art and music. A space where these three mediums, which we continue to focus on as pillars, all meet and continue to evolve and grow in the same ecosystem together. For us, this is what aligns Shelflife with who we are as Playroom and what we are looking to do further into our future and how to use the three pillars of art, music and fashion. We see us being an extension of the ecosystem in which they already exist but as an event brand.

PP: We think collaboration is important in the arts and culture community because collaboration is one of the many tools which form creative ecosystems and build community even further. It teaches us how to communicate creatively together and how to create shared voices beyond our individual creative voices.

PP: Rising Star is a space that is intimate and intentional. The focus is purely on the talent and the experience of hearing what is out there beyond what we know and what is to come. While ending the experience with a live performance from an artist who was once emerging and now established, Maglera Doe Boy. This then bridges the gap and keeps growing the connection between emerging and established.

PP: We are most looking forward to meeting the talent and hearing them perform in front of a community that cares.