A new music festival is coming to Johannesburg this winter, and it carries both a celebrated line-up and a deeply personal story at its centre. Scatterlings Music Festival, shaped by Jesse Clegg and Msaki, is set for 1 August at Huddle Park — a one-night gathering of South African artists across generations and genres, built around the idea that music has always been the thing that brings this country together.
The name is no accident. It draws directly from the legacy of Jesse’s late father, Johnny Clegg, whose music became a defining thread in South Africa’s cultural fabric. The festival will also celebrate the upcoming release of an album of reimagined Johnny Clegg songs, due later this year.
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The line-up
The programme is a genuinely exciting cross-section of the South African sound. Zakes Bantwini, Sjava and Sun-El Musician headline alongside Clegg and Msaki, with Simmy, MUZI, Beatenberg, Tresor, Zolani Mahola, Sminofu, J’Something and Jabulile Majola rounding out a bill that moves across Afro-pop, soul, electronic and alternative.
Rather than a straightforward festival format, the concept leans into collaboration — artists sharing their own most meaningful songs while also each interpreting a Johnny Clegg track. It is a framework that gives the night shape and intention beyond a standard stacked line-up.
What it means
Msaki, speaking on Radio 702, was clear about the animating idea behind the event. “I wanted to honour this idea that we are all the scatterlings of Africa and this place where a song can give us belonging, or it can pull us apart,” she said. “I think a lot of Johnny’s music was instrumental in making us see that we’re more alike than anything.”
For Clegg, the festival is about returning to music’s most fundamental function. “It’s about bringing South Africans together again through music that has always connected us,” he said, describing an experience where audiences become part of the story rather than passive observers.
Tickets go on sale soon. For a country with a deep and complicated relationship with its own musical heritage, Scatterlings feels like exactly the kind of event the moment calls for.
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