The rise of Get Real House Music Festival [Interview]

Get Real seemed to spring out of nowhere and become an industry-leading house music festival in Cape Town almost overnight.

But overnight sensations are never as simple as they look.

There’s usually a lot of hard work behind the scenes and plenty of planning that cultivates what may appear to be ‘instant success’ in the music game.

To their credit Get Real have lived up to their brand name and kept it real with extremely high production levels, well-crafted lineups and some of the best marketing material in the game.

If you’ve never seen their marketing machine in action – before, during and after each event; then you’d have to be living under a rock or, to be honest, not that big a house music fan. 😉

With over 5,800 party maniacs at their last event, it’s safe to say that this is one music festival the Mother City massive can’t get enough of.

Their next event is lined up for 7 December and features Chemical Surf and Groove Delight as their international headliners plus a support lineup of local favourites.

We chatted to festival partner, Luke McPherson, about the brand and its ethos…

The term ‘Get Real’ speaks to a time where you enjoy yourself, drop the filters of daily life and lose yourself in the music and moment.”

Get Real – the name. Tell me how it came about. Was it one of those easy names to come up with or did the partners sit and deliberate over it before deciding? It sounds like there’s a message in there too.

So, the name originated from my best mate and founding partner Justin Heyman back in 2017.

At the time we might not have realised it but, the brand would really grow into the name incredibly quickly.

The term ‘Get Real’ speaks to a time where you enjoy yourself, drop the filters of daily life and lose yourself in the music and the moment.

You guys have featured some stellar headline artists; I am sure it’s tough to pick a favourite, but who would you say ‘stole the show’ with their performance at one of your events to date?

Let me start by saying what a privilege it is as a music lover to be able to bring such top tier artist to SA and to see them deliver the goods to an up-for-it crowd really is the cherry on top.

Each time a lot of thought goes into selecting the headline and co-headlining acts and I pride myself on having my finger on the pulse of the music scene, specifically the South American music!

To answer the question.

The act that stole the show would hands down be ILLUSIONIZE.

From the second he climbed on the stage he had the crowd eating out of his hands, delivering the most educated underground Brazilian bass set I have ever heard.

He blew the crowd away with each drop.

What I love even more is that he came from humble beginnings growing up in the favelas (Portuguese for township/rural area) and is now one of the most respected Brazilian DJ/producers at the young age of 24 with his own record label called Elevation!

We blend Deep-House into House into Tech-House to Brazilian bass and finally ending in Progressive Trance.”

Music curation is integral to a successful music festival brand; Get Real feature quite varied line-ups across different genres; how would you explain the music to a noob who hasn’t been to one of your events yet?

I cannot agree more, music is the oxygen that breathes life into any successful event!

Our line ups are incredibly versatile simply because we love to have something for everybody.

Each event creates a smooth transition throughout the day incrementally increasing the energy from start to finish.

We blend Deep-House into House into Tech-House to Brazilian bass and finally ending in Progressive Trance.

Get Real comfortably pulled over 5,000 party maniacs to your last event; in Cape Town that is massive. What’s the secret ingredient?

I think our recipe is pretty straight forward and I believe that’s where our loyal support comes from.

It’s an uncompromising production that ticks all the boxes with the sheer scale of the event, which is world-class, coupled with sensational audio-visual elements.

Add to that the very best in local and international talent delivering the sickest beats with a slick set all round in terms of festival set up, tons of bar space, food options and infrastructure and last but not least, thousands of Cape Town’s beautiful party people who are there for one reason and one reason only; to GET REAL and have the time of their lives.

What’s next for Get Real?

What a question and without giving away too much the answer is always the same.

Each event we are constantly looking to improve and better all aspects of the experience.

This December is no different and we plan on taking things to the next level with a boutique food court, fun and incorporating sponsor activation areas and the biggest trick up of sleeves is our most retina-melting audio-visual production to date…

I’ll leave it there. 😊