MATRICULANTS nation-wide are letting their hair down and celebrating another edition of the Rage Festival.
The week-and-a-half long party binge has been popular in youth culture for more than a decade now and although it has its naysayers, including boring parents and “concerned” education suits, it’s an amazing experience for the youngsters involved.
Rage has always managed to draw thousands of teens from all over the country to uMhlanga and Ballito.
The cultural impact of the festival is undoubtedly massive.
“Rage Festival is seen as the culmination celebration of 12 years of school, a chance to embrace your freedom and party in safe spaces with like-minded students from across the country,” said the festival’s spokesperson, Darren Sandras.
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The festival also gives the local economy a huge boost.
“Over the years, the festival has developed strong relationships with the local hotel and accommodation options in uMhlanga and Ballito and during the festival period providing a substantial cash injection into the local market.”
The festival also partners with taxi associations for their shuttle services and uses trusted third party transport providers.
“We are proud to be working with the relevant local taxi associations within Ballito and uMmhlanga, empowering local drivers to participate in the transport services of the festival. We have created a system that our festival-goers never have to use their own transportation which adds to our no-drinking and driving policy,” said Sandras.
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Rage Rides forms the backbone of the Rage Festival transportation network. Every Rage Ride vehicle has an official Rage Ride marshal on board who is responsible for the well-being of all passengers on board.
The vehicles are strictly used for Ragers throughout the festival and are monitored in real-time.
Rage Rides can be identified by official identification stickers placed on the vehicles. Each shuttle has a unique identification number located on the front and back of the shuttle as well as on the inside of the shuttle,” Sandras said.
For parents worried about the safety of their teens, Rage has precautions.
“Safety and security at the Rage festival is paramount in everything we do. The festival has been going for over a decade and through learning and understanding changing social dynamics adds new layers to the safety protocols each year.
“The festival has a multi-layered approach to safety, starting with working with all security stakeholders in KZN with local police services and private security companies to the innovative integrated RFID chip technology from Howler. This means every single Rager is logged into our system with emergency contacts and medical details stored for rapid response to any situation by a comprehensive safety team which is always on stand-by.
“We work closely with the amazing guys from the Red Frog Association and have also developed a transport network which helps us to move festival-goers to each venue safely.
“Each year, the festival adds more production elements with incredible lights and adds more pool parties and activations to improve the experience for the party-goers. The festival has “Ragents” and their job is to sell the various passports on offer.”
Thomas Moore’s Ragent, Dayna Le Roux, was proud to play her part. “It’s been such a great experience being apart of the Rage family spending the entire year working as a team to create something that’s highly anticipated each year and it’s nice to finally get a first taste of freedom.” independence.”
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