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Red Bull Back2Beyond Comes Home to South Africa
22 November 2025 @ 5:00 pm – 23 November 2025 @ 1:00 am
Born from the collective spirit of South African music, Red Bull Back2Beyond is set to make its local debut in Pretoria on 22 November 2025. The event promises a night-long, interlocked chain of back-to-back DJ sets, where DJs collaborate live across multiple stages. Unlike typical events that feature just one back-to-back set, Back2Beyond creates fresh duos throughout the night, highlighting diverse sonic identities and celebrating the first cohort of DJs.
Originally launched in Cologne in 2024, Back2Beyond reimagines electronic music performance through rotating DJ pairings, generating a continuous, collaborative musical conversation. While revolutionary in Europe, this format feels familiar in South Africa, where music has always thrived on shared creativity — from Zulu call-and-response and apartheid-era jazz to Gqom’s township producer collectives and Amapiano’s multi-artist collaborations.
The South African lineup embodies this heritage:
- KMAT – An Amapiano innovator blending electronic textures with township rhythms, KMAT has toured extensively, establishing herself as a global ambassador for South African electronic music.
- Dlala Thukzin – Known for pushing sonic boundaries, his productions reflect the collective creativity that birthed Gqom, expanding into 3-step and Gqom-tech.
- Major League DJz – Pioneers of Amapiano who treat music as dialogue, they continue to explore Afro-house and Afro-tech, celebrating African music globally.
- Sun-El Musician – An Afro-house visionary, carrying South Africa’s collaborative spirit worldwide with his delicately melodic African Electronic Dance Music.
The event will take place at 012 Central in Pretoria’s city center — an authentic, unpretentious venue that prioritizes music over spectacle, mirroring Back2Beyond’s ethos of spotlighting shared artistry.
By curating this lineup, Red Bull Back2Beyond aims to celebrate dance music in its purest form. Whether it’s Afro-house, Amapiano, 3-step, or Gqom, these genres have cemented South Africa as the epicenter of African dance culture. With Amapiano and Gqom now influencing global dance floors, Back2Beyond’s arrival in Pretoria is more than just an event — it’s a homecoming, recognizing South Africa as the true birthplace of the collaborative energy that drives this format.
More info: redbull.com/back2beyond | Follow @RedBullZA
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