‘Wedstock’ festival of love
[caption id="attachment_72486" align="alignright" width="300"] TALES OF THE RIVERBANK: Tegan Sampson and Adrian Meyer, below, held their wedding reception in the form of a 'Wedstock Love Grooves' open-air concert at Redhouse last month -[/caption]
Couple celebrate second ceremony in harmonious riverside celebration
WOODSTOCK became Wedstock in the month of love when Port Elizabeth sculptor Tegan Sampson and Swiss-German eco-biologist Adrian F Meyer celebrated their wedding at a riverside music festival in Redhouse.
With the help of their music therapist friend Tine Joubert who lives on the banks of the Swartkops River, Tegan and Adrian marked their “second” wedding in style on Tegan’s home turf on Saturday February 28 under the banner of “Wedstock – Love Grooves”.
Tine had already presented several Redhouse concerts, dubbed “Redstock” after the iconic Woodstock open-air art and music festival staged in 1969 – and Tegan and Adrian’s party echoed the Woodstock spirit of love, peace and art across song, music, clowning and poetry.
“It was an awesome night with lots of talent and an intimate open-air festival vibe,” said Adrian, who studied biology in his native Germany before coming to UCT in South Africa to complete the fieldwork needed for his masters degree.
All the musicians played free of charge, and the wedding party boogied to nine acts as diverse as rock and metal band Hectic Electric, African soul group Soul Element, ska band The Brothers and hillbilly rap ’n’ rock outfit The Cottonfields.
Tegan and Adrian even sang a duet as dusk fell and picnickers enjoyed the balmy summer weather.
Tegan, 26, met Adrian, 24, when his 40-year-old Volkswagen Kombi conked in just after he had travelled up to Port Elizabeth to buy it.
“To make a long story short: the car broke down multiple times, I was devastated, got a nasty virus infection and was ‘ stranded’ in PE,” Adrian said. “Tegan, who initially wanted to save her friends – where I was overstaying my welcome – took me and my broken Kombi to her parents’ house for a week.
“We fell in love, I stayed longer, repaired the car and we drove to Cape Town to complete my research. Tegan became my field assistant and we studied mammalian bio-diversity with trail camera traps on Table Mountain and Constantiaberg.”
When Adrian’s visa for South Africa expired, Tegan went with him to Germany and worked as an au pair for a year. When they decided to marry, however, they discovered a wedding in Germany was out of the question due to passport and documentation restrictions. Hence, at short notice, the couple officially married in Copenhagen, Denmark, without family.
“We wanted to share our love with our families so after the first wedding in Denmark, we arranged a second wedding in Redhouse for Tegan’s family. But how much fun is a wedding without a party?” Adrian said.
That was when old “Redhovian” Tegan, remembering Tine’s Redstock open-air music festivals, asked if she might consider a “Wedstock – Love Grooves” as an after-party to the couple’s South African wedding last month.
Now the couple are back in Europe, where they live, and are set for wedding No 3 – this time with Adrian’s family in Germany.
-Gillian McAinsh
