Reflections on 2025
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The idea for WHAM started with Naadirah, who came back from Europe with a spark. She couldn’t afford to go to the women’s festival in Fontainebleau and thought why not create her own, right here in SA.
She’s the furnace of the project for sure and soon the WHAM team was born: Carmen from Womxn for Wild, curator of many all-womxn outdoor events, Mish (that’s me!) and Becks from Breathe In Experiences, with expertise in all things Rocklands, and Naadirah. That’s team WHAM, and in my humble opinion, we’re one helluva team.
Together, we built something we truly believe in, though that didn’t stop the doubts.
“Do you think anyone will buy a ticket?” became our running joke and our biggest fear. Planning a festival that means something to you is terrifying. But we did it, we took up space. And when WHAM Fest sold out, we knew that fear had been worth it.
WHY WHAM?
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This one took us a while. Weeks of group brainstorming. We envisioned this festival and this space in a certain way and wanted the name to convey that.
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Something that reminds womxn that they are immense,
that they can take up space,
that their place is anywhere they want it to be.
A name that portrayed the POWER that lingers inside womxn and that builds when womxn gather.
So we landed on
WHAM: Within Her Are Mountains.
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An acronym that feels like it’s power inaction.
The idea for an all-womxn, all-mountain festival is not unique worldwide, but this was AFRICA’S FIRST!
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Born out of the desire to create a safe space for womxn to explore, grow and connect.
We chose Rocklands because, well, it’s Rocklands, a place we love deeply.
And we want more womxn to find that same feeling of belonging here, and in mountain spaces everywhere.
HOW IT ALL PLAYED OUT...
Team WHAM had only met up twice in person before the festival, the rest of the planning happened online, scattered across South Africa. So coming together the day before the festival in Rocklands was something special.
This thing we’d dreamed up for a year was finally in motion.
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As everyone started arriving on Friday, there was a distinctive shift in the energy at Basecamp. You could feel it, a quiet sense of significance, as if something important was about to begin.