One night in Carfax

A few months ago I wrote about discovering Johannesburg after dark (read here). Before I moved here, I hadn't expected to find a city with such a lively nightlife, purely because Johannesburg is a city with a reputation that may scare you off leaving your home at night. But after living here for over 7 months now and not having the ability to say no to a party, I feel like I have now more than scratched the surface of the city's night time economy. This past weekend we attended In the Burg festival in Carfax, which is the epitome of Joburg's club scene.

If you'd driven me through Carfax on a Tuesday afternoon, I'd have assumed we'd taken a wrong turn. Like much of Joburg's CBD, this area isn't polished, it isn't postcard Johannesburg and, at first glance, it certainly doesn't look like the sort of place where thousands of people would spend a Saturday dancing. But that's exactly what happens.

It wasn't always this way. Carfax grew up as part of Johannesburg's industrial heart, where warehouses, railway lines and wholesale businesses served the rapidly expanding city. Like much of the inner city, it lost some of its purpose as companies gradually relocated to Johannesburg's northern suburbs. But the empty industrial buildings left behind created something else: opportunity.

Over the past few decades, artists, promoters and musicians began reclaiming these forgotten spaces. Warehouses became galleries, old factories became clubs and, little by little, Carfax established itself as one of the homes of Johannesburg's electronic music scene. It has never tried to compete with the polished rooftop bars of Sandton or Rosebank. Instead, it embraced exactly what made it different. The grit is part of the appeal.

That's something I've started to notice about Johannesburg more generally. To me, the city's best places rarely obvious. Unlike London, where a queue outside a bar or restaurant is usually enough to tell you you're in the right place, Joburg often hides its gems in neighbourhoods you'd never think to visit unless someone told you about them.

In the Burg feels like the perfect expression of that spirit. Rather than building a shiny festival in an open field somewhere, it embraces Carfax for what it is. The industrial backdrop isn't something to disguise, it's part of the experience. Five stages are tucked between warehouses, railway arches and brick buildings, creating a festival that feels unmistakably Joburg.

In the Burg may only be a few years old, but it feels like the natural continuation of Joburg's house music legacy. Every winter, around 5,000 people descend on Carfax for what has quickly become South Africa's biggest winter electronic festival, bringing together international headliners alongside some of the country's best house, techno and drum & bass DJs. It's less a music festival in the traditional sense and more an annual celebration of a scene that has long called this part of the city home.

And you could tell. What struck me most wasn't the production or even the venue, it was the crowd. There was none of the standing around waiting for the headline act or filming every drop on your phone. People came to dance. It felt less like a festival people had come to tick off and more like one they'd been looking forward to all year.

In the Burg doesn't feel like a festival that could simply be picked up and dropped into another city. It works because it embraces everything that makes Johannesburg different. The industrial backdrop, the local scene, the music and the people all feel intrinsically linked. It's a reminder that some of Joburg's best experiences aren't found despite the city, they're found because of it.

Notes from 26° South.