Adelaide’s Nurcha Fest was the last leg of the debut national festival tour. It was the first event of its kind in our city – 12 hours plus of nothing but hip-hop, and most definitely a case of “if you weren’t there, you missed out”.

With over 20 acts live on stage, Nurcha Fest was a massive illustration of what our scene has to offer. Now it would be impossible to give an in depth review of them all and not have readers falling asleep with boredom, so I will briefly state that every single act performed tightly on the day. I will go into detail of shortly of those that REALLY impressed me!

Arriving at Viva around 2pm, there was a mix of people already milling around. The underage attendees had taken up residence on the couches in the unlicensed main room, with the older heads milling around the bar in the smaller licensed area. Downstairs in the beaming sun the graffiti wall was well underway and looking fantastic already, and despite what any ill-informed council members may think, it is a brilliant improvement over what was already there. It also served as a distraction during the day, a good way to get a fresh air breather was to duck down and check on its progress.

Back inside and the first act to catch my attention was Track & Verse, with the beats somewhat simple yet bangin’, and the lyrics easily gliding over the top. They are not a name I had seen before but one which I will file away for future reference. As I ventured briefly to the bar area I was drawn back quickly by what I saw on the projector screen, and heard through the live music feed into that room – Ill Equipt were tearing it up, with loads of energy on stage and an impressive presence for an act still making their mark on the scene.

After spending some more time out at the wall watching the artists at work and chatting (plus a brief food run), I managed to only catch the end of General Knowledge’s set. But as expected, what I saw was tight. The same must be said for Social Change, and although he has been doing his thing around the traps for a long time in the past year, his name seems to be popping up everywhere and with performances like his at Nurcha Fest it’s no surprise. With Funkwig freewheeling on the MPC and Snair all over the cuts, they were backing him to perfection as he spat both written and freestlye rhymes with ease.

The first act to have a real solid crowd come to the stage front was the Barossa’s Particular People. Their live show offers something different: MC Muzza was working the stage from the front while at back, 4BC and Lotek were controlling four turntables and two mixers with ease. Unfortunately for them they copped the day’s only technical hitch with the needle skipping a couple of times, but it was handled like professionals with Muzza altering his place in rhyme without any hassles and nobody in the audience were any the wiser. A very enjoyable set all around.

Following on from the PP was a ridiculously tight set from Prime, joined on stage by Purpose which in turn led nicely to the first Nurcha crew of the day Double & Lu – they absolutely smashed the stage. For a crew that has never played in Adelaide before they had the crowd eating out of their hands, increasing the audience size from the set before and having them all slamming along in time. A quick foray into the bar area again was ended by the sounds of Headstrong Company – these lads are the future of Adelaide, they played another extremely tight set and I’m very much looking forward to the album dropping.

Second up representing Nurcha was Mind Over Matter. Adelaide loves these boys and with good reason. With a sound that is exceptionally accessible and thoroughly enjoyable they had the days best crowd response, bar the headliner Delta. With their debut album scheduled to drop early next year their future is seriously bright, and performances like this solidify the fact they along with their label mates and acts like Headstrong and PP, they’re the future of Australian hip hop. Speaking of the future, Last Credit have one of the countries tightest live shows right now, a fact proven as the followed on from MOM. Although the crowd dissipated a little (perhaps the new smoking laws were to blame), Maekism and JMC with DJ Illa on the decks delivered a flawless performance. Rockstar 101 luring a number of heads back indoors and closer Moshpit featuring Double and Big Lu showing those inside exactly how exciting these boys are.

Second last and warming up for Delta nicely were Conseps and Patti, the boys from Adroit have been smashing stages all across the city all year and this was no exception. As always seems to be the case when Delta takes the stage, the crowd had all filtered back indoors and made sure they were front and center. I have seen Delta and Staen a lot of times this year and there isn’t a lot more I can say about them. World beating talent on display in our own city on a regular basis, no two sets are ever the same due to Delta’s ability to freestyle and no set is something you want to have missed. If Delta and Staen 1 are on the bill it’s as simple as this, you are getting a live show as good as anything you will see worldwide!

Although numbers were down a little on what the organisers would have liked, I am guessing it was a phenomenal day of music. The planning that went into the show really shone through on the day, it ran super smooth and the acts chosen to appear were all on point. In Adelaide for local music the City Of Verses and Nurcha Records stamp on a flyer is fast becoming THE mark of quality you look for. Hopefully this is an event that returns next year, in an ever expanding scene there is definitely a need for a quality annual showcase of the next wave of stars, Nurcha Fest has the makings of being it.