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Are you ready for Up The Creek?

Pack a lilo, round up some friends and book your ticket for South Africa's favourite riverside music festival!

Richard Holmes
Written by
Richard Holmes
Local expert, Cape Town
Up the Creek
Photograph: Up the Creek
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South Africa’s favourite free-floating music festival, Up the Creek, returns to the Cape from February 6-9, 2025, with a star-studded line-up of local and international acts set to take to the stage on the banks of the Breede River outside Swellendam. 

Up The Creek is one South Africa’s longest-running outdoor music festivals, and the ideal way for music-loving party fans to while away a weekend. Up the Creek 2025 will offer four stages, pitched on the banks of the Breede River to allow guests to party for days on dry land, or take to their lilo to soak up the tunes while soaking in the river.

Wondering who will be playing at Up the Creek 2025? More than 50 acts have been confirmed for the 2025 festival, offering something for every musical taste. The latest performers to be announced include Karen Zoid, Hot Water, Schalk Bezuidenhout, Desmond & The Tutus, Phfat, Grassy Spark, Jackal & The Wind, Riaan Smit, Dirty Disco Records, Dave Ferguson, Keanan Eksteen, Black Mamba Man.

That’s all on top of the first-phase artists previously announced: Australia’s Hollow Coves, and local legends Francois Van Coke, Matthew Mole, The Black Cat Bones, Albert Frost, Droomsindroom, Die Piesangskille, Unyazi, Ben Dey, Murray, Lucy Kruger and the Lost Boys, Warongx, Freddy L, and Luukhanyo & The Hii Rollers.

Up the Creek dishes up a whole weekend of cool tunes, so you’ll want to pull in for the full festival. And here ‘Creekers’ are spoilt for choice, with a range of camping options on offer.

If you don’t mind keeping things simple, the cheapest option is the camping included with your festival ticket. There are three sites – The Hilton, Ellis Park, and Country Club – that offer plenty of flat grassy sites, but you won’t be able to keep your vehicle in the campsite.

Campers will, however, have access to two ablution blocks with indoor hot showers and flushing toilets. Outdoor showers (hot and cold) will also be available, as well as ample portable loos around the festival grounds.

If you want to camp close to your car, spend a little more for the Hillbilly and (a new addition for 2025) Platteland campsites. They’re a bit quieter, further from the festival action, offer indoor hot showers, flushing toilets, outdoor hot and cold showers and portable toilets. Remember though that these campsites are not included with the festival ticket and need to be purchased separately.

Or if you’re not really the camping type, your top of the pops options are the Riverbank Glamping Tents and the (even more luxe!) Heartbreak Motel, where you can choose between two types of comfortable tented suites.

Full Weekend Passes are priced from R1795 (excluding ticket fee and premier camping), and festival tickets are limited to 3000 attendees. Book online via Howler.

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