Klitsgras is a live events venue just outside Pretoria east along Garsfontein Road. Here people gather in an amphitheatre to play African drums while appreciating other live music and forms of entertainment, such as fire dancing. Klitsgras is a platform for up-and-coming bands who want to showcase their talents, and also supports local artists.
Valentine’s Day guests were treated to a musical performance by the Ultra-Natives, who call themselves a genre-less band. Even though the Ultra-Natives have only been playing together for a few months, their hip-swaying rhythms made quite an impression on the crowd who asked for an encore at the end of the performance. Klitsgras holds drumming circle evenings every second Friday. Newbies do not need to feel intimidated. An experienced
drummer in the middle leads the drumming while other drummers follow the rhythm. You can bring your own drums along or hire them from the venue.
Besides the drumming circle evenings, Klitsgras also holds Chilling Sundays on the first Sunday of every month where acoustic bands play. The venue also hosts workshops including djembe and percussion classes, didgeridoo workshops and team building events.
“Klitsgras has really grown an incredible amount from where it started,” says Klitsgras employee Emile van Straaten. “It started off as a little hole in the ground with five people who are very passionate about drumming. From those five people they basically spread the love, shared the love and now we have over four hundred people coming here.”
With all that love and drumming going on through the night, you wonder what the morning after feels like. You may have a sore finger or two from beating the drum too hard or at the wrong angle but you’ll comfort yourself knowing it will heal in time for the next Klitsgras experience.
Image provided.
