The World Peace Party was a warehouse

rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...

held in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

on Friday, 13 September 1991. It is considered to be the first warehouse rave in Africa. The event was produced in South Africa, by the

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

based UFO Collective. Founders Carl Mason and

Jesse Stagg Jesse may refer to: People * Jesse (biblical figure), father of David in the Bible * Jesse (given name), including a list of people * Jesse (surname), a list of people Music * ''Jesse'' (album), a 2003 album by Jesse Powell * "Jesse" (so ...

teamed up to start UFO (an acronym for Unlimited Freak Out or Unity of People, Freedom of Expression, Original Ideas). The event featured live musical acts in proto

Zef Zef () is a South African counterculture, counter-culture movement. Kyle Hans Brockmann has compared zef counter-culture to many similar anarchic Subculture, sub-cultures in the northern hemisphere. Etymology Yolandi Visser of Die Antwoord said ...

punk-rave-rappers the MC's from UNCLE and local

rap Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates " rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backin ...

acts Organized Rhyme, $O$ ($ell-Out $yndicate) and Krishna with early

House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

Disc Jockeys DJ Giorgio and Rozzano (now known as RealRozzano) and support by DJ Tony Smith. The event lasted 14 hours and was attended by approximately 3,500 people. The venue was the Nautilus soundstage in the Paarden Eiland industrial zone, an area on the edge of Cape Town, reclaimed from the ocean. The location came with a 40 foot by 10 foot Infinity Curve, which served as backdrop for an elaborate fluorescent mural depicting the "journey of the beat" from Africa through Europe and the West and back to Africa in the form of a UFO. The mural was painted in a

Mayan Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

inspired

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

cartoon

wild style ''Wild Style'' is a 1982 American hip hop film written, produced and directed by Charlie Ahearn. Regarded as the first hip hop motion picture, it includes appearances by seminal figures such as Adam Horowitz, Fab Five Freddy, Lee Quiñones, L ...

and incorporated

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

custom computer animations promoting positive affirmations and distinctive UFO branding. This level of artistic sophistication was unusual in the early years of the international rave scene. The World Peace Party featured an inside and outside area complete with the soon to be ubiquitous fun park of inflatable castles, human gyroscopes and vendors serving fast foods and miscellany. Given the political context of the time, and with the

Apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

regime still in power and

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

still in prison, security was a major concern. The promoters assembled a large team of well-trained, mixed-race security personnel, who expertly managed the overwhelmingly mixed-race crowd who had rarely, partied together in such a context. No incidents of violence of any kind were reported. The following dawn many hundreds of participants lined the side of the N1 highway as they walked the 5 miles back to Cape Town. As much a posse as a production company, the UFO team comprised a loose band of artists, designers, students, models, engineers and partygoers. UFO comprised in part: Nik Jevons, Brendan Smithers, Roger Young, Raymond and Andrew Mpolokeng, Nicole Abel, Toni Dorfman, Edward Petersen, Shukrie Joel among others. The UFO production team went on to open several permanent venues to promote

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

, most notably the first dedicated dance club of its kind on the continent, Club Eden.

Vandalism

During the ubiquitous marketing campaign, the signature black-and-white teaser posters, emblazoned with a strong 3D graphic of a

peace symbol A number of peace symbols have been used many ways in various cultures and contexts. The dove and olive branch was used symbolically by early Christians and then eventually became a secular peace symbol, popularized by a ''Dove'' lithograph b ...

and only the date, Friday 13 September, were vandalized with green paint across the city of Cape Town. Evidence suggested it was the work of a Christian fringe group, who took issue with the peace sign, claiming Satanic influence. The promoters used this controversy to their advantage and enlisted the State media to publicise the event.

Summerluv

Another event took place in the same location 6 months earlier, under the name Summerluv. This event was produced by Jesse Stagg in conjunction with Anton Resnekov. Although seminal, and well received, it was on a smaller scale with approximately 300 people in attendance.

References

{{Reflist Electronic music festivals in South Africa Festivals in Cape Town