Speaker 1: If you're into live music, Candlelight Concerts is sure to
Speaker 1: have a genre that rocks your boat. They're offering everything
Speaker 1: from edge shearing meets Coldplay or Careful to forval these
Speaker 1: four seasons. And joining me on the line to tell
Speaker 1: us more about it is that Lindy Savandah Fever original
Speaker 1: Candlelight project manager Linda Good to have you with us
Speaker 1: this morning.
Speaker 2: Hi, good morning, Thank you for having me pleasure.
Speaker 1: Tell us about the history of Candlelight Concerts.
Speaker 2: Okay. So, Candlelight is a series of live music concerts
Speaker 2: that originated in twenty nineteen by a company called Fever.
Speaker 2: And this was an admission to democratize access to classical music.
Speaker 2: So formerly classical music concerts would be very long, highly
Speaker 2: priced and boring venues and you know, inaccessible to the
Speaker 2: common public, normally for highly educated individuals. But Fever saw
Speaker 2: a niche market in that and decided to delve into
Speaker 2: that and it's been very successful.
Speaker 1: Okay. And then who was involved in bringing it to
Speaker 1: Cape Town?
Speaker 2: So FIVA is only seeking to delve into new markets.
Speaker 2: So South Africa was then identified as a potential market
Speaker 2: and they collaborated with local individuals like myself to bring
Speaker 2: the series to South Africa. The first city was then
Speaker 2: Cape Town last year in around October, and we've also
Speaker 2: launched in several other cities as well.
Speaker 1: And so just just explain to our listeners what the
Speaker 1: concept is. I mean it seems pretty obvious candlelight concerts,
Speaker 1: but but just talk a little bit about how it
Speaker 1: set up, the capacity and how long duration, et cetera.
Speaker 2: Okay, so our concerts normally an hour long. We usually
Speaker 2: have about two sessions every day. Then our concerts happen
Speaker 2: every other day on a weekend. So we usually launch Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays,
Speaker 2: sometimes Thursdays as well, and we partner with talented local musicians.
Speaker 2: And we always identify iconic venues, usually venues with a
Speaker 2: historic resemblance to each city, and they illuminated by thousands
Speaker 2: of candles.
Speaker 1: I want to know more about that. Talk to me
Speaker 1: about the logistics of the thousands of candles, How does
Speaker 1: that work, who likes them? What are the safety precautions.
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated by that because I'm looking at some of
Speaker 1: the footage from previous concerts. I mean, it looks magical,
Speaker 1: but potentially a logistical nightmare.
Speaker 2: Definitely, I mean, there's a lot of players that goes
Speaker 2: into those concerts obviously, So each city has its own
Speaker 2: local producer who manages a team of individuals, usually young people,
Speaker 2: that then put their heads together and set up the candles. Right,
Speaker 2: as a safety concern that a lot of people are
Speaker 2: obviously consent. I mean five thousand, sometimes twenty thousand candles
Speaker 2: being lit in a venue.
Speaker 1: How many.
Speaker 2: Five thousand sometimes twenty thousand, depending on the size of
Speaker 2: the venue.
Speaker 1: How long does that take? How long does it take
Speaker 1: to like twenty thousand candles?
Speaker 2: Okay, So first of all, our candles are led operated,
Speaker 2: so it's not flame candles. So yeah, as a safety
Speaker 2: precaution that's covered in terms of time, it takes about
Speaker 2: two to five hours to set up, depending on the
Speaker 2: size of the venue.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to ask if they're led, it makes I mean,
Speaker 1: it takes a little bit of the magic out, but
Speaker 1: it also makes me feel a little bit more comfortable
Speaker 1: because all it takes is for somebody to, you know,
Speaker 1: to have a loose piece of clothing, you know, or something,
Speaker 1: and suddenly it's gone from that to a front page,
Speaker 1: front page news article. Okay, led, okay, but twenty I
Speaker 1: mean twenty even still, you've still got to switch on
Speaker 1: twenty thousand led candles. Oh my goodness, imagine being the
Speaker 1: person responsible for the batteries. Okay, good, Okay, So about
Speaker 1: about an hour in various locations, where can people find
Speaker 1: out what concerts? Tell us about some of the ones
Speaker 1: that you've got coming up.
Speaker 2: So we've got people can check out our concerts at
Speaker 2: Candlelight Experience dot com. That's the Candlelight Experience dot Com.
Speaker 2: And the moment you enter that gender locations on, it's
Speaker 2: going to there it to tow the candlelight concerts in
Speaker 2: your respective city. So if you're in Cape Town, the
Speaker 2: moment you punch in Candlelight Experience dot Com, it's going
Speaker 2: to show you all the the lined up concerts.
Speaker 1: Okay, can you give us an idea if some of
Speaker 1: the ones coming up in Cape Town.
Speaker 2: We've got a different variety of concerts coming up. Examples
Speaker 2: include Vivaldi, Vivaldi's Seisens that's a very famous one. We've
Speaker 2: got concerts by Mozart Choppin. Those are traditional, traditionally known
Speaker 2: classical music artists. We also have several contemporary ones like
Speaker 2: Queen Up, Coldplay at Sharan and Adele so it's it's
Speaker 2: modern and contemporary music pieces that have been changed into
Speaker 2: a classical form and being played either by a string
Speaker 2: corded or a pianist.
Speaker 1: So the musicians that the play for these concerts, they're
Speaker 1: not already a collective. You you bring them in, you
Speaker 1: source them sort of independently of each other, and then
Speaker 1: they presumably go through a rehearsal period. Where do you
Speaker 1: find the conductor if they're all independent and not already
Speaker 1: part of an orchestra collective.
Speaker 2: So we've got a dedicated team FEVER that deals with that.
Speaker 2: Our music curators are professional musicians themselves, so they work
Speaker 2: to identify other professional musicians in each local city that
Speaker 2: we deal with. So in Cape Town, we've got the
Speaker 2: play String Couttet, Tundega String Curtet, the New Stream Cottage,
Speaker 2: amongst others. So sometimes we find in a really existing
Speaker 2: string cutet and then we make them join our global
Speaker 2: network of musicians. And sometimes it's just one individual that
Speaker 2: we identify and then they work to bring several other
Speaker 2: individuals together. And it's been an amazing opportunity for our
Speaker 2: local musicians to get to play and showcase their talents.
Speaker 1: I'm with you, I'm with you, So it's not necessary
Speaker 1: if I come and see a candlelight tribute to Queen
Speaker 1: and the Beatles on one evening night of August, folks,
Speaker 1: and then on the twenty second of August, I go
Speaker 1: and see Coldplay and imagine Dragon's kind of light. It's
Speaker 1: not necessarily going to be the same lot of musicians.
Speaker 1: Or is it the same lot of musicians for all
Speaker 1: of the Cape Town concerts.
Speaker 2: No, it's it's not going to be the same. Not
Speaker 2: you can I find that today we've booked play Drink
Speaker 2: Tid that's the play. Then tomorrow it's Tender Drink It.
Speaker 2: So it's never the same people.
Speaker 1: Okay, fantastic stuff. This looks exciting. I'm looking forward that
Speaker 1: there really are. There's a host of a host of
Speaker 1: concerts available right through until December, folks, So go to
Speaker 1: the website and find out. And I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you if you've already been. I know that was
Speaker 1: the tribute to Queen is currently on at the Norvel Foundation,
Speaker 1: So if you've been to that, then do let me
Speaker 1: know what your thoughts are. If you've been to any
Speaker 1: of these candlelight concerts, what's it been like? And yeah,
Speaker 1: well I imagine it must look amazing. I mean, that
Speaker 1: must be really, you know, the atmosphere must be incredible. Okay,
Speaker 1: good stuff. Candlelight concerts happening throughout Cape Town. Thanks very much,
Speaker 1: indeed to Lindy Sabandah from Fever Original Candlelight for chatting
Speaker 1: to us this morning