Can you afford to go to a “˜free concert’?

Since early March, the lamposts of Cape Town have been covered in Freshlyground posters, with a big, you-can’t-ignore-me ‘FREE’ plastered at the top of each one, larger than the name of the actual band.

As South Africans (or any humans really), we love free things. No CD sounds as amazing as one that was given to you for free. Even burgers seem to taste better when paid for by someone else. But in this instance, how free is ‘FREE’?

Freshlyground performed to a crowd of 500, possibly more. It was my first time watching them perform live, so I had no expectations, meaning I had no room for disappointment, or so I thought.

I attended the event with a French friend, Clement, who happens to be a volunteer at a refugee camp in town. It was refreshing to listen to something old but with new ears, because of his interest in the band and our country (he’s been in South Africa for a month now).

The park was fully packed with families, picnic blankets, wine and happiness. For a park it was rather ‘luxurious’, and it’s not until Clement posed the question, “What about the people from the township, are they also here?”, that I thought, “Actually, yes, what about them?”

As the sun was setting and I’d Like was playing – an almost perfect live performance, so to speak – I heard a woman who was sitting behind me mutter something about going home before it was too late in order to avoid getting ‘trapped’ in town. It was 6pm, there was a lot of light, and I saw no reason for them to leave 40 minutes into the band’s performance. What was the point of even going to the concert then?

We turned around, and Clement and I introduced ourselves. We started chatting to the woman, Angela Nkwinika, a single mother of three who lives in Langa. She found out about the concert only because she works in town and saw the posters, which made her decide to treat her kids to the event, seeing as it was free and normally she wouldn’t have money for such things.

“What about Freshlyground posters in Langa?” I asked. Apparently there were two or three, but no one was excited about it, she explained.

It baffled me that South Africans wouldn’t be excited about seeing one of our biggest exports live, for free!

“What’s there to be excited about? It may be free, but we still have to pay a taxi fare, walk from the taxi rank to the venue, enjoy what we can all whilst watching the time so that we can get transport home,” she said. “When it come to these things, the less fortunate are sidelined. We never really fit in – everyone has their expensive food and wine from Woolworths. We have our packed polony sandwiches and Oros in old bottles. It’s just uncomfortable. I do these things for my kids mostly,” she said.

Our conversation moved on to ‘free concerts’ at Kirstenbosch Gardens. “How will we get there? We have to take a taxi or bus from Langa and then call a meter taxi to take us to the botanical gardens and back to the rank again. That’s too much money,” said Angela.

Surely these ‘free concerts’ should provide free transport for Cape tonians who find it difficult to attend, be it due to financial difficulties or worries about finding a way home. What’s the point then in having a free concert when those who’d appreciate it the most can’t afford to get there?

I wasn’t able to speak to Angela for long as she and her family had to leave and catch the last Golden Arrow bus that could take them home.

As the evening went on, the band played more familiar-sounding tracks, people sang along, danced to the more upbeat songs, but I suddenly noticed all that was wrong and unfair about this ‘free concert’ concept and ultimately lost interest in the performance.

I was surrounded by so much glamour (that’s not easy to pick up if you don’t care) that I began to understand what Angela meant. There is no room for people without money – they’re not accommodated; from getting to the park to feeling comfortable there.

“Although everyone is here to have a good time and I shouldn’t feel like I’m being judged, I feel judged. I look at my picnic basket and compare it to that of someone sitting besides me and I feel ashamed to eat my food,” was one of the things Angela said that stuck in my mind.

Although music unites people, social inequalities, whether in the mind or clearly visible, will always cause a divide between the rich and poor. The next time you see a poster marked ‘free’. How ‘free’ is free, really?