THE FREE PARTY PROJECT

Matthew Quinton

Matthew Quinton got involved in music and the party scene back in the early 90’s working at a club called Deviate and assisting with the Gaia Tech parties in ‘92 – ‘94. At the end of ‘94, Matthew joined Jonathan Portuesi in Pharcyde promotions. Joined later by Tchavdar Nakov, these 3 went on to stage the first large scale indoor and outdoor Rave events in South Africa including the legendary Synergy events, the largest dance events ever held on the African continent, with a record 20,000 people attending in December 1997.

The various events he co-promoted were held in theaters, warehouses and public buildings. In fields and on platforms on the slopes of the mountain. Over the course of 5 years and over 50 events, Matthew and the Pharcyde team brought the likes of Paul Van Dijk, Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Carl Cox, Alistair Whitehead, Nic Warren, Raver’s Nature and many others to these shores.

Matthew left Pharcyde in 1999 but remained involved in the dance music scene through DJing and more recently through the TOY (The Older Youth) events in and around Cape Town. 

His interest in music has always been in it’s ability to change perception and his belief through the early years of the Rave scene was that besides having a good time, the events were helping to shape people’s views of the world and of each other. Helping to promote understanding and helping to break down prejudice and barriers.

He became disillusioned with the rave scene as commercialism and main stream culture swallowed up the ravers of the 90’s just as it had swallowed up the hippies of the 60’s and the disco queens of the 70’s.

Like so many people in the world today, he feels that something is out of place, something is wrong with the picture communicated to us by the main stream media and press. Somehow we are slowly and systematically being disconnected from our true abilities and our immense power as human beings and the freedom and clarity we taste during those few free party years in our youth are swept up in the mundanity of adulthood.

After searching for a way to combine the experiences he had in the 90’s rave culture with his subsequent life lessons and in an ongoing quest for personal freedom, the Free Party Project was born.

Matthew does not profess to in any way be the originator of the Free Party Project, he is simply a curator of an idea much bigger than any one person. The Free Party Project is another expression of life’s urgent need to be free.