by Thinus Ferreira
As DJ Criss let rip with tracks from across the decades on Saturday night, something quite unique - perhaps never to be repeated again - happened: The best awards show afterparty in South African television history ever, with kykNET's afterparty for its 1st Silwerskerm Awards for TV and Film that felt exactly akin to the mythical Vanity Fair Oscars party.
If you were there, consider yourself extremely privileged.
You were part of a life experience and bore witness to something that might very well never happen again.
If you attended, you quite miraculously found yourself inside a glorious bubble that had exactly the ethereal pop culture quality that only America's entertainment biz has ever been able to create with its iconic Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty.
Take a look at the black-and-white photos of the night and you'll see a magical moment in time captured in amazing images of an event that might very well never be duplicated at any South African awards show ever again. It's 2023 after all, and this is the first time it's ever happened.
The afterparty which will surely be buzzed about in future as legendary, took place on Saturday night in the Cape Town Convention Centre (CTICC) after the conclusion of kykNET's 1st Silwerskerm Awards for TV and Film which served as the closer to its 11th Silwerskermfees that took place last week in Camps Bay.
The confluence of two unrelated kykNET decisions - unexpectedly and surprisingly - led to the most awe-inspiring party that South Africa's TV and film biz has ever seen: A Disneyland night of talent from in front of, and from behind the camera, and from all levels and spheres from within the industry, all dancing the night away until after midnight.
Firstly, kykNET invited over a thousand people to the CTICC for the awards show - not just actors new and old, but producers, executives from across the vertical biz-building industry, directors, TV presenters, socialites, media and influencers and the press from editors to journalists, as well as everyone from TV channel bosses and commissioning editors and line producers and content execs to award-winning filmmakers and stylists.
Secondly, a golden wristband like to Charlie's chocolate factory, is all that was needed for access to the CTICC's massive Ballroom East venue on the first floor.
There was no VIP section and no VVIP section - no section within a section keeping those deemed more "worthy" away from those in the biz seem as less worthy.
With a DJ and a dance floor, kykNET created a completely egalitarian afterparty where an absolutely A-lister would dance right next to an up-and-coming hopeful, while DJ Criss played greatest hits like a remix of Journey's Don't Stop Believin'.
These two factors combined are exactly what made kykNET's Saturday night afterparty so special, enviable, completely unbelievable and exactly like the storied Vanity Fair Oscar Party: No VIP section but with enough people attending and funnelled into it that it brought a cross-section of the entire biz into it, creating an astounding microcosm dancefloor, rubbing shoulders together as equals, for a special few hours.
Black and white and Sikh, old and young, award-winner and TV presenter and executive producer danced next to Lourensa Eckard, next to Siv Ngesi, next to Binnelanders and Suidooster soap stars, next to tuxedo-clad men who stood alongside glittering women in evening wear.
Everyone was in the same room laughing and dancing and chatting - from Lynette Francis-Puren and Renaldo Schwarp to Brett Michael Innes, Terja Beney and Vinette Ebrahim to Dillon Windvogel, Ben Heyns, Marciel Hopkins, Liam Bosman, Ingrid Paulus Vraagom, Zane Meas and Ivan Botha to Sunday Times scribe Leonie Wagner - and many, many more.
Like the crosswalk in Times Square - like standing in Disneyland and feeling as if you're watching the faces you know from the entire world of South Africa's TV and film gliding past - the kykNET afterparty was truly an unprocessable moment.
Here were both the who's who and the will still be who's, all together in the same room with no airs and no pretence, with no couches and no cordoned-off areas for VIPs, truly just having fun for one night - something that neither the SAFTAs and the MAMAs, nor any sports awards, the SAMAs, the Mzansi Viewers' Choice Awards, Africa Magic Viewers' Choice Awards, Royalty Soapie Awards or Metro FM Music Awards have ever managed to get right or do in this way.
Keep your golden wristband if you still have it - it's a keepsake to a very unique occurrence.
Look at it and remember what's possible even in South Africa's fame-obsessed TV and film biz when the stars align and everyone is truly seen as equal in an industry where too many, too often, start to believe that they're too special to share the same dancefloor.
