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HVOB to Headline It’s Personal Picnic in JHB
EVENT | THINK IN ELECTRONIC
Think In Electronic News | HVOB to Headline It’s Personal Picnic’s 15-Year Celebration in Johannesburg
The Austrian duo will bring their immersive live show to James & Ethel Gray Park this September
Johannesburg is getting an international electronic music booking with some serious weight behind it. HVOB will headline It’s Personal Picnic’s 15-year celebration, taking over James & Ethel Gray Park on 5 September 2026.
The Austrian duo will sit at the top of a bill that also brings together some of South Africa's most recognisable electronic names, including Shimza, Ryan Murgatroyd, Jullian Gomes, SONA and Abby Nurock.
For anyone familiar with HVOB's live shows, the setting feels particularly well suited. Their music has always thrived on atmosphere, patient builds, pulsing low-end and intricate electronic textures that unfold rather than rush towards the obvious payoff. In a park, with Johannesburg's afternoon light gradually giving way to sunset, there's plenty of room for that sound to breathe.
We've caught HVOB live three times in Beijing, and each performance has reinforced the same thing: their show is less about delivering a collection of tracks and more about creating a space for the music to take over. It's immersive without being overstated, with the duo allowing tension and repetition to do much of the work.
That makes their Johannesburg appearance one of the more intriguing international bookings on the city's September calendar.
The Austrian duo will sit at the top of a bill that also brings together some of South Africa's most recognisable electronic names, including Shimza, Ryan Murgatroyd, Jullian Gomes, SONA and Abby Nurock.
For anyone familiar with HVOB's live shows, the setting feels particularly well suited. Their music has always thrived on atmosphere, patient builds, pulsing low-end and intricate electronic textures that unfold rather than rush towards the obvious payoff. In a park, with Johannesburg's afternoon light gradually giving way to sunset, there's plenty of room for that sound to breathe.
We've caught HVOB live three times in Beijing, and each performance has reinforced the same thing: their show is less about delivering a collection of tracks and more about creating a space for the music to take over. It's immersive without being overstated, with the duo allowing tension and repetition to do much of the work.
That makes their Johannesburg appearance one of the more intriguing international bookings on the city's September calendar.
For It’s Personal, the booking arrives during a significant chapter. The 2026 edition marks 15 years of the Beautiful Picnic, celebrating a brand that has become closely associated with bringing electronic music into open-air spaces and building an experience around the people as much as the music.
The daytime event is scheduled to run from 12:00 until 22:30, giving the celebration plenty of time to move through the familiar arc of an outdoor electronic gathering — afternoon warmth, increasingly loose energy, golden hour and the inevitable push towards the final tracks of the day.
And this year, there's somewhere else to go afterwards.
The 15-year celebration continues with It’s Personal: Afterdark at Truth Nightclub, extending the anniversary from the park into Johannesburg's nightlife. The organisers are presenting the two experiences as part of a wider celebration rather than treating the picnic as an isolated daytime event.
It's a fitting way to mark 15 years: start outside, let the music build, then carry the night somewhere deeper.
Alongside HVOB, the lineup brings together artists whose sounds have helped shape the country's contemporary electronic landscape.
Shimza arrives with his globally recognised Afro-house sound, while Ryan Murgatroyd brings the melodic and progressive side of South African electronic music. Jullian Gomes, meanwhile, has long occupied his own space between deep house, broken beat and the wider South African house continuum.
SONA and Abby Nurock round out the announced lineup, giving the day enough range to move naturally between different moods and tempos.
Rather than chasing a single genre, the bill reflects the way Johannesburg's electronic scene actually sounds: fluid, cross-pollinated and comfortable moving between house, Afro-influenced sounds and more atmospheric forms of electronic music.
And then there's HVOB.
Their appearance gives the anniversary a genuine international focal point, but it's the contrast between the duo's immersive live sound and the depth of the local lineup that could make this edition particularly interesting.
Fifteen years is a long time in electronic music. Styles change, venues disappear, scenes evolve and audiences move on. The fact that It’s Personal is still gathering people around music and can bring an act of HVOB's calibre into that space says something about the staying power of the format.
It’s Personal Picnic: 15 Years
Date : Saturday, 5 September 2026.
Location : James & Ethel Gray Park, Melrose, Johannesburg.
Time : 12:00 to 22:30.
Line-up : HVOB, Shimza, SONA, Ryan Murgatroyd, Abby Nurock and Jullian Gomes.
Tickets : howler.
The celebration continues after dark at Truth Nightclub.
Tickets : howler.
The celebration continues after dark at Truth Nightclub.
