This past Saturday, Dane Stirrat, co-founder of The Eden Experience, and his team implemented an incentive aimed at festival-goers to bring 5 litres of sealed water in exchange for complimentary shots of El Jimador tequila.
The event, which took place at The Cooperage in the Anura Vineyards in Stellenbosch, is an exclusive outdoor dance music festival. It is known for showcasing the best local talent as well as internationally recognised artists in the House, Tech and Techno genres.
The collected water will be donated to Domestic Animal Rescue Group (DARG) as part of the ‘Eden Gives Back’ Campaign to keep domestic animals in shelters refreshed and hydrated during the drought, all around Cape Town.
“The ‘Eden Gives Back’ Campaign is a very simple concept of us giving back to the community in the form of some sort of aid,” said Stirrat.
The Eden Experience is an exclusive event which brings music and nature together to create a chic festival combing house, tech and techno sounds
PHOTO: Caira Blignaut
DARG Cape Town is a non-profit organisation that rescues, cares for, sterilizes and rehomes previously abused, neglected and abandoned cats and dogs. They play a crucial role for the communities of Imizamo Yethu, Hangberg and the Hout Bay area.
“We started in 2015 with the anticipation of 500 attendees, however 900 people arrived and we have grown ever since, averaging at about 2000 people per festival and our biggest one was last November with 3000 people,” said Kole Roder, co-founder of The Eden Experience.
The last installment of the Eden experience included an outstanding artist line up featuring Franky Rizardo from the Netherlands, as well as Timo ODV and Rickay.
According to Roder, the DARG initiative has been ongoing since November last year, where they asked for dog and cat food or treats to give back to those who don’t have a voice. “Now that we are conscious of the water shortage, we have adapted our request,” he said.
“This is something we’d like to do, moving forward with all of our events, as every single one of us at EDEN love animals and have big hearts for them,” said Roder.