Basement Jaxx Set to Headline Kiss Kiss Festival at Emmarentia Dam

Joburg, make room in your calendar for a new edition of Kiss Kiss festival, returning to Joburg on Sunday, 12 April 2026. This daytime music festival in Johannesburg arrives with a lineup, a setting, and a vision that raises the bar considerably. For those who haven’t been before, Kiss Kiss is not your standard music festival. It’s an all-day cultural experience designed with intention — where the food is as considered as the setlist, the setting does as much work as the stage, and the feeling you leave with is the whole point.

The 2026 edition spans two cities simultaneously, pairs homegrown South African energy with genuine international firepower, and lands in two outdoor spaces that were practically made for a day like this. Here’s everything you need to know.

Kiss Kiss music festival in Johannesburg | What's On in Joburg

A music festival built for the golden hour

Kiss Kiss has always understood something that most music events miss: the venue isn’t just a backdrop, it’s part of the experience. This year, the Joburg edition takes over Emmarentia Dam — one of the city’s most loved outdoor spaces — transforming its open lawns and waterside atmosphere into a full-day cultural playground.

Doors open in the early afternoon, and the programming is deliberately paced to evolve as the day does — building through the warmth of the afternoon, reaching its peak at golden hour, and carrying on well into the evening. Beyond the music, a masterfully curated food court will bring together leading chefs from Johannesburg, with bold, considered menus designed to be lingered over between sets. And throughout the grounds, immersive theatre and roaming performance — from stilt walkers to unexpected live moments — blur the line between audience and experience.

As the organisers put it: “Kiss Kiss was built around the idea that a party can feel expansive. It’s about sunlight, open air and a soundtrack that evolves as the day unfolds. It’s about curiosity and connection.”

Kiss Kiss Headliners 2026: Basement Jaxx and Internet Girl

Basement Jaxx need little introduction — but their story is worth telling anyway. Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe began life as underground producers and party promoters in early-nineties South London, pressing their first tracks onto shrink-wrapped vinyl and throwing parties that became the stuff of legend. What followed was one of the most enduring catalogues in electronic music: “Red Alert”, “Rendez-Vu”, “Jump n Shout”, “Romeo”, “Where’s Your Head At” and “Good Luck” among them — plus genre-defining albums including their debut Remedy and the double-platinum, UK number-one The Singles. In 2025, the duo returned to the live stage triumphantly with headline sets at Coachella. Their Kiss Kiss appearance brings the full live show to South African soil — a high-energy, era-defining set from one of dance music’s true greats.

Joining them is Internet Girl, the Cape Town-born trio who have spent the last few years building something genuinely exciting. Their beats are a confrontational, oversaturated mix of styles including pop-punk, hyperpop, and grungy indie. Fronted by the charismatic Ntsika ‘TK’ Bungane alongside producers Matty Burgess and James Smith, they’ve gone from Rocking the Daisies to Paris stages, racked up millions of streams internationally, and were selected as Apple Music’s Up Next act — a recognition of their rapidly growing global momentum.