ON 16 December 2025, Cape Town comes together for Back to the Old House: The Sunflower Sessions, an all-day celebration at Maroon, 226 Long Street, from 12pm until 2am.
- The Story
For those who know the city’s history, Long Street was the beating heart of Cape Town’s house scene, the place where music brought people together across divides. This is more than a party; it is a reunion of DJs, crews and communities who built the city’s 1990s house culture, a movement that broke down barriers and connected Cape Town to the global dance floor.
- The Pioneers
Two of the originators, Peter Abrahams of Keep It Real (pictured) and Colin Macrae, creator of the Essential Mix, are leading the charge. At a time when many clubs in South Africa were still segregated, house music carved out new spaces of freedom and connection. These nights became cultural resistance, proof that on the dancefloor equality was possible.
- The Experience
On 16 December, a public holiday, that spirit rises again. The day begins with rooftop sunshine grooves and sunset sets framed by Table Mountain, before the celebration moves indoors across two dancefloors into the early hours. There are no velvet ropes, no VIPs, no influencers. Only music, community and the truth that on the dance floor everyone is equal.
- The Line-up
The family returns: Peter Abrahams, Jazza, Russell, Dino Moran, Craig De Sousa, Matt Blitz, Lady M, Jody K, Rudi, and Odwa, alongside surprise guests from the movement’s roots.
- Looking Ahead
Back to the Old House is also part of a wider project. Macrae is developing a documentary, The Politics of Dancing, exploring how Cape Town’s house scene created new social realities in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The story of those nights and the people who lived them remains one of the city’s most powerful cultural legacies.
- Tickets & Info
