Bryony Leach
Bryony notices details and keeps track of objects — handy on a build. She brings filmset construction experience and first aid, helped set up the BEAT and HUMANITY warm-ups, and has been a fire performer at the last several Earthdances.
Crew Makes the Gathering
Photo: Jaco Brewer Photography
The hands that hold the space
Long before the gates open, and long after the last set ends, Earthdance runs on people doing the unglamorous, essential work — kitchens, gates, parking, and the thousand small things a gathering needs to hold together. Meet some of the crew bringing 2026 to life.
Meet the Crew
Earthdance 2026 crew
Crew
Conrad Swart
Conrad's been to Earthdance every year, often in different provinces, and it usually lands on his birthday weekend. He does demarcation and signage for AfrikaBurn, and this year he's swapping the dancefloor for the build crew for the first time.
Jarryt Sean Layne
Jarryt's spent six years in film and events, focused on unit and site ops, with decor, stage builds and crew welfare behind him. He loves a hard day's work and good tunes, and he's bringing his PDP licence to help the build crew however it's needed.
Jason St.Blaize Searle
Jason's a veteran builder, artisan and structural fabricator who has spent decades shaping South Africa's festival and counterculture landscape — most notably driving the massive kinetic wooden builds and performance effigies for AfrikaBurn. He's on the senior build crew this year, bringing the collective grit it takes to raise impossible structures in raw places.
Josef Klue
Josef's a rigger by trade and by handle, happy to roll wherever he's needed. He's on the build crew this year, helping build and rig the site at Kromrivier.
Kei St.Blaize Searle
Kei's a designer and fabricator who practically grew up on festival build sites, surrounded by South Africa's large-scale structural art communities. He's rigging and carpentering on the build crew this year, and away from the site he turns his creative eye to documenting Cape Town's underground subcultures.
Matthew Morgan Snyders
Matthew's a 25-year-old motorcycle mechanic who's been going to Vortex parties since 2018. It's his first party build, but he brings carpentry, electrical and decking experience, a head for heights and a good hand with power tools.
Nico Storm
Nico's a creator, builder and people connector with 20+ years across hospitality leadership, event production, set design and experiential facilitation. He's on the build crew this year, turning ideas into moments people remember.
Niku Pendlebury
Niku grew up going to Earthdance and sees it as the place where the family comes together. He's on the build crew this year, holding space for the dreamers and helping make the site feel like home — and he's playing as Space Monk too.
Shaman Balraj
Shaman's good with his hands and quick to solve problems, with set, decor and stage builds behind him at Fractual Namibia, AfrikaBurn's Camp 404 and Spiritfest. He's joining the build crew this year, with an eye on art and decor too.
Vernon Pendlebury
Vernon's been part of Earthdance since it first arrived in Africa — he created the Spiritchill space that grew into Peace Camp, and has spent decades weaving tunes through chill-out spaces. He's back this year as crew, and behind the decks as The Great Veroni.
Departments
Design
Christo Bruyns
Christo's a Cape Town-based designer, music lover and event enthusiast who loves turning ideas into experiences. He's working alongside the marketing team on graphic design — the visuals that help bring Earthdance to life.
Gate
Bianca Petersen
Bianca's running the Gate team this year and is happy to step in wherever else she's needed. She's grateful to be part of this community again.
Glamping
Julia Stephenson
Julia's been part of the events world for many years and loves the energy, creativity and community that come with bringing people together. As Glamping Manager, she's looking after the glamping village and making sure everyone staying there feels at home.
Kitchen & Catering
Bernadette Cohen-James
Bernadette wears many hats, but she loves soil and its magic, and growing food and flowers. She's in the crew kitchen making sure crew and volunteers eat well — and bringing her mom, Patricia, to her first-ever trance party.
Kitchen & Catering
Patricia Cohen
Patricia's joining her daughter Bernadette in the crew kitchen this year. It's her first Earthdance, and her first-ever trance party.
Parking
Didier d'Hotman
Didier's a full-time project manager with seasons on festival support crews behind him. He's setting out Parking this year, and helping set up Catering besides.
Leading the Return
The people steering it home
Behind the crew, a small team carries Earthdance Cape Town year-round — the people who brought the festival back in 2025 and are doing it again for 2026.
Festival Custodian & Lead
Michael "Birdman" Aldridge
Birdman has spent decades at the meeting point of trance, consciousness and collective transformation, from Johannesburg's early techno raves through years of ceremony at Altered States to Earthdance's 1999 gathering in Dharamsala. When the previous organisers stepped back, he secured the licence from Earthdance Global and called the community together to bring the festival home in 2025, and continues as its custodian and lead for 2026.
Music & Programme
Mikey Dredd
Mikey came up in South Africa's late-90s and early-2000s psytrance scene, remembered for the marathon sets that helped define those early outdoor gatherings. He joined Earthdance production in 2008 and has worked across stage, sound and operations ever since — this year he's shaping the 2026 programme and co-hosting Frequency Check alongside Birdman.
Production Manager
Jennifer Walker
Jennifer is Earthdance Cape Town's production manager for 2026, an event producer and systems thinker with 25 years spent between complex systems and the people who use them. Her focus is making the festival sustainable without losing what makes it matter — building the conditions for people to arrive as co-creators, not just an audience.
Want to Join Them?
Help hold the space
Join the people who make Earthdance happen, before, during and after the weekend itself. Volunteer applications for 2027 are coming soon.