The Yaadt Paati is making room for itself and everyone else on the dance-floor – Texx and the City
The first thing you notice at The Yaadt Paati isn’t the music. It’s the way the dance-floor moves to it.
I went to The Yaadt Paati’s last edition in May. The parking lot that is Texas on Albertus Street felt like a strangely fitting venue. It was one of the most fun, spontaneous nights out I’d had all year. It was the sort of dance-floor that keeps you locked in motion. Before I knew it, four hours had flown by. I left smiling, with satisfyingly sore feet. DJ Kixi’s set has stayed with me ever since. It’s one of many I’ve seen this year, but one of very few that left a truly lasting impression. Sometimes, I feel like I can play moments of it back to myself.
I grew up in Durban, far removed from Cape Coloured culture and Yaadt music. But at The Yaadt Paati, I felt nostalgic for something I’d never actually experienced before. That’s what happens when a dance-floor becomes alchemic. It had the same energy as the boot-jols at Blue Lagoon and the braai-and-dances held in primary school halls across Pietermaritzburg. Those meeting places and social gatherings that I’d grown up in as part of Durban’s Indian community. Different histories, but same feeling: a marginalised community sharing power by gathering, a statement of visibility and solidarity in each other’s right to celebrate being alive. The Yaadt Paati felt like coming home to a place that doesn’t pretend everyone’s home looks the same.
That feeling is exactly how The Yaadt Paati’s founding daddy Kalo Canterbury, better known as DJ KDOLLAHZ, understands Yaadt culture. “Yaadt music is more of an umbrella term,” he explains to me. We’ve had this conversation before. Every time, KDOLLAHZ explains Yaadt with the sort of ease that only comes from living it. “It combines heavy jacking and tribal house beats with synthy, dubby bass and more. Sonically we’ve evolved so much over the years that more and more sounds end up under this umbrella.” But to describe Yaadt as a genre alone is to miss the point entirely. “It’s more than just a genre, it represents a generational subculture with its own distinct language, style, dances and more,” says KDOLLAHZ. “It’s a way of life, baba.”
For him, Yaadt is something he inherited. “My parents actually met at Galaxy,” he laughs. “With my dad being a DJ back in the day, that sound was the soundtrack to our home.” Located in Athlone, Club Galaxy has long been one of the epicentres of Yaadt culture. But its influence was never contained within its walls. The music travelled home with the people who danced to it. Long before streaming services and algorithms, the sound and culture spread through community. Mix CDs were copied between friends. The latest ‘Yaadt nommers’ were Bluetoothed between Nokia phones at school and church. The energy of the club found a second life in backyards at house parties and family gatherings across the Cape Flats.
Like many kids growing up in Cape Town, KDOLLAHZ’ introduction to Yaadt came through this ritual of music sharing. “A super deep love for that old-school coloured house party sound is what originally got me into DJing,” he says. Anyone who has got down to a KDOLLAHZ set has experienced how they continue Yaadt’s lineage by connecting the dots, sitting comfortably between the classics and a new generation of producers pushing the sound forward by establishing ‘Yaadt’ as a sound in itself. The Yaadt Paati grew out of that same desire to celebrate the music he loved in a space that gave it the attention it deserved. “I wanted a jol where it isn’t about status, what you have or who you are,” KDOLLAHZ says. “You come for the music, en kla.”
That philosophy has resonated well beyond Cape Coloured audiences. Since launching with Black Major earlier this year, The Yaadt Paati has become one of Cape Town’s most exciting recurring nights, bringing together audiences that reflect the city’s diversity while remaining unapologetically rooted in Yaadt culture. Placing Yaadt in the heart of the City Bowl has created something electric. “Honestly, it’s healing,” says KDOLLAHZ. “Not just because the party is all about the pure joy of dancing and singing your heart out, but it’s a real act of reclaiming space.”
That sense of homecoming brings with it a warmth that lingers long after the music at The Yaadt Paati ends. Long before it filled warehouse dance-floors and club sound systems, Yaadt culture existed in living rooms, backyards and community halls. Those spaces weren’t just places to party—they were places to gather. “Before it ever touched a major club sound system, Yaadt was about the backyard braai, the living room kuier, lamming on the corner, playing your brasse the newest mix off your phone. It was always a third space.” That third space feeling is what defines The Yaadt Paati best. As KDOLLAHZ explains, “People aren’t just coming to lose themselves in a dark, impersonal room. They’re coming to find each other. It feels less like clubbing and more like a moerse family reunion.”
As Cape Town and its centre continue to wrestle with questions around access and ownership, it’s the visibility of an event like The Yaadt Paati that matters most. “Our sound doesn’t deserve to stay confined to our homes and communities,” KDOLLAHZ says. “Yaadt deserves to be showcased at the highest level, right in the centre of the city because the music is next, next, next level. But above all, it’s ours.”
Rather than adapting Yaadt to fit the conventions of Cape Town city’s nightlife, The Yaadt Paati asks nightlife to make room for Yaadt. “We took the warmth of a house paati, a braai, a stoep jol and turned it into a high-energy club experience,” KDOLLAHZ explains. “We just want to keep giving the sound the platform, respect and production value it deserves.” In his own way, he’s sort of going back to that dance-floor at Club Galaxy, the one that quite literally made him.
The Yaadt Paati returns for its Winter Edition next week, and fourth edition overall. It’s also its biggest to date. Happening inside the blank canvas warehouse of ColourBox studios, the lineup features newcomers on the yaadt scene like Lightbeams alongside stalwarts like Aryu Jassika and Surreal Sessions, with Kixi and of course — KDOLLAHZ.
But even as the Paati begins to grow, KDOLLAHZ’ ambitions remain rooted in its core – the music, and the community. Along with showcasing more of the scene’s pioneers and boundary pushers on The Yaadt Paati’s lineup, he’s just as excited by the possibility of seeing “more aunties, uncles, cousins, mas and pas” filling its dance-floor. Because ultimately, that’s where The Yaadt Paati makes a little room for everyone.
I think that’s how four hours disappeared so easily that night at Texas. I arrived expecting to discover another club night and left feeling like I’d stumbled into someone’s family jol — one generous enough to make room for me too. The Yaadt Paati isn’t simply preserving a musical tradition. It’s reminding Cape Town that some of its richest music subcultures have been parking here all along, waiting for the rest of us to pull in and have a good time.
The Yaadt Paati returns for its Winter Edition on Friday, 7 August 2026, at Colourbox Studios in Paarden Eiland from 8pm. The line-up features DJ Kixi, KDOLLAHZ, Surreal Sessions, Aryu Jassika and Lightbeams. Early Bird tickets are R150, with General Admission and door tickets priced at R170. Tickets are available here.
