Posted On: Aug. 16, 2022
Speaker Announcement:
South Africa at BreakOut West 2022
BreakOut West is your portal from the west to the rest of the world. As territories open up again to showcasing and travel, now is a great time to learn the ins and outs of the most vibrant export markets for Canadian music. South Africa is a bustling music market, and it’s not as far away as you might think. Vibrant festivals and a unique media environment make South Africa a growing export market with diverse tastes and audiences, and a unique relationship to the rest of the continent that birthed humankind. Get insights from industry professionals all the cardinal directions at BreakOut West 2022.
See South African speakers and more at BreakOut West 2022.
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Meet the South African delegates attending BreakOut West 2022
Tecla Cliofi - Texx and the City
Texx and the City is run by journalist and editor Tecla Ciolfi. Tecla has been a part of the music industry in South Africa for the last 15 years in various capacities, namely journalism, radio presenting, event curation, artist management and podcasting.
After building a portfolio writing for various SA publications, Tecla spent two years editing local music magazine Your LMG and contributing to Rolling Stone Magazine for the duration of its publication in South Africa.
During this time, she also took up position of Editor and Marketing Manager at Deezer in South Africa which she held for four years, building the streaming service’s music catalogue and running label relations. Now she is a freelance contributor to Apple Music South Africa's editorial and copywriting team. She also uses all her hard-earned knowledge about streaming to educate unsigned and underground artists as to the FAQs surrounding all streaming services.
In 2018, alongside the internationally renowned Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, Tecla created the sold out After Dark series which saw the I&J Ocean Exhibit transformed into a cozy, living room-style setting featuring two acoustic bands on the last Wednesday of every month over a 4-month period.
In April 2020 Tecla launched South Africa’s first music interview podcast Texx Talks, which went on to become the #1 music podcast on Apple Podcasts for several weeks after it’s launch. Texx Talks has seen Tecla interview some of Africa’s biggest musicians like Tems, Tresor, Cassper Nyovest, Nasty C and Msaki, as well as international heavyweights Passenger, The Lumineers, James Blake, Portugal The Man and PJ Morton.
As one of Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans (2015) and House & Leisure’s Rising Stars (2015), Tecla has grown Texx and the City into a fully-fledged music site that’s home to a team of young contributors who support the legends of tomorrow, today.
Ian Bredenkamp - Ian Bredenkamp Media
Ian Bredenkamp is an innovator and entrepreneur with his primary focus in the Music Marketing and PR space.
He's the Founder of "Ian Bredenkamp Media", Africa’s #1 Music Plugging + Promo company. Servicing territories including South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria, his major label clients include Warner Music Canada, Warner Africa, BMG USA, BMG UK, EMPIRE - Los Angeles, Platoon - UK and many more.
Ian and his team have serviced singles for artists including Cardi B, Robin Thicke, Rick Ross, Aloe Blacc, Simply Red, CeeLo Green, Neon Dreams, Lizzo, Jack Harlow, Jason Mraz, Brandy, Katie Melua, Counting Crows, Kylie Minogue and many more.
His background includes commercial radio management where he was head of programming at Kfm 94.5, the market-leading FM station in Cape Town, South Africa. He also worked on music strategy for urban pop station 947 in Johannesburg.
In addition he’s managed the PR, Marketing and Social Media for international concert tours including Tori Amos, +LIVE+, The Cure, Kings of Chaos, PIXIES, Alison Moyet, Suzanne Vega, Mike + The Mechanics and Bonnie Tyler.
Previously he was a well-known voice on South African radio.
Natasha Savage - Cr8if
Her keen interest in music and the entertainment industry led her to join Sovereign Entertainment, a record label and management company. She worked with top South African artists, such as The Parlotones, Prime Circle and Wonderboom, handling all agency functions, tour and road management. Natasha also had the wonderful opportunity of working with Starsailor on their Europe tour to South Africa. Cultivating numerous tours, events, and album launches over that period which included Powerzone Music Festivals, Xbox 360 Summer Tours , Rocktober Unplugged shows (at the Barnyard Theatres) and The Go Summer Tours.
Natasha joined Just Music in September 2012 to start up their “Live” Division. Just Music was South Africa's leading independent music company and the home to some of the world's major independent labels : Beggars Group (which include XL, Matador, Rough Trade and 4AD), Mute, Domino, Ninja Tune, Ministry of Sound, Spinnin, Hed Kandi, Dramatico, Hidden Beach Recordings, and Time SPA. On the local front, Just Music have signed some of SA’s top artists - Death by Misadventure, Dance, You’re on Fire, Fetish, Flash Republic, GoodLuck, KONGOS, Locnville, Matthew Mole, Nakhane Toure, The Anti Retro Vinyls, The Muffinz, Pascal & Pearce, Shadowclub, Tailor, Yoav, Moonchild Sanelly and Zebra & Giraffe. Working exclusively for Just Music for 3 years I worked closely with Just Music artists at their incubation stages ie. Matthew Mole, Pascal & Pearce, The Muffinz, Nakhane and Tailor all these artists who have now well-established careers. With the leaving of Just Music’s owner Karl Anderson (now head of Itunes Africa) she saw the opportunity to break away from Just Music and start up Cr8if Agency.
Natasha Savage is owner Creightif Agency, started in 2015 owned by Natasha and her husband Ryan Savage is a 2-part agency. Ryan services the brands & sponsorship industry specifically in design & brand development. Natasha handling artist bookings, event management and production. The artist’s currently in the stable have had numerous commercial success such as the likes of Matthew Mole, Locnville, Desmond and The Tutus and Pascal & Pearce. On the artist developments currently working on Jethro Tait and Easy Freak. With the South African industry being a small pool of trustworthy people, Natasha had to extend my business into events / festival curation & facilitation. Collaborating on many corporate events, curating artist line-ups. For the likes of Sun International (Nedbank Golf Challenge, The Sun Met & Sun International properties). The annual VW Grand Prix Awards and a few a few Food & Wine Festivals within South Africa.
Damon Forbes - BreakOut Events
Breakout Events is a Event and Management agency. While also running the arts programs for the Citie of Bloemfontein ( Macufe) , We have toured many global acts more recently the likes of Angus & Julia Stone, Bonobo, Seether, Aha, Modest Mouse, Maxwell, Tamia , Brandy and Bombay Bicycle Club, while also doing a range of African and world music acts from Salif Kieta and Ishmael Lo to Davido and Tiwa Savage. A major focus on the business is now on the key event brands and successful festivals:
• Parklive ( In its 9th year)
• Lush a 3 day out of town festival that caters for 18 000 people over three days,
• Large on the Lawn + On the Lawns – inner city park series at end of each month end during the summer months,
• Malibongwe – large urban picnic styled city festival
