Humans of Tropical Africa: VIII

Dear problem solvers, 

We are back with Humans of Tropical Africa, where we introduce and connect you to our friends who wear TA clothing. In today’s blog, you are getting to know Stijn Chaigneau, Manvariër Kaisiepo and Remco Visser: three festival-goers we encountered last summer during festival season. Manny at Summerpark Festival, Stijn at La Rêve Festival and Remco at Mandala Festival. Nowadays, we are still in touch and friends with them.

Rate The Rave (Stijn Chaigneau)

Stijn Chaigneau is really happy to introduce himself and so are we. He is 23, born and also living in Arnhem. In the meantime, he took a few trips to Nijmegen, Utrecht, Amsterdam and Oslo for work and study purposes. In 2018, he graduated from his study Food and Business and last summer he worked at the beach pavilion 'Strand Zuid' in Arnhem as a manager. We are both stoked to tell you more about his own platform / business, which he started last May. 

The platform is called 'Rate the Rave' (RTR). On this platform, visitors can leave a rating for an event in the techno/house scene they have visited. Their mission is to reduce the existing gap between the event organisations and -visitors. They have noticed that a large number of festival-goers love to give their opinion about an event they visited, whether this was a positive or negative experience. According to RTR, there was no convenience place to do this and organizations were leaving huge opportunities unused in the current event landscape. 

Currently, festival-goers are receiving a long list of questions with unnecessary questions by email. Besides, the visitor has no clue what will happen with the information/feedback. This is where RTR wants and tries to close the gap. They collect ratings on different criteria which are valuable for both the organization and visitor. Based on the ratings, RTR will list an overall score and link feedback back to both parties. Next to the ratings, RTR is the platform to find unique festival content, recap videos, artist information and the place to win free festival tickets. 

In a short period of time, RTR has grown to a platform with more than 2.000 actively engaged festival- and techno lovers. They are working together with STRAF_WERK, Soenda, Free Your Mind, Pleinvrees, De Marktkantine, Flow, La Rêve, Calor and Subcultuur. Behind the scenes they are working hard and their plans for 2020 are massive. Fun fact: the support of the mastermind behind RTR is unreal. He keeps partying in the The Sekunda and spreading our message to the world, even to Reinier Zonneveld below :) :) 

 
(@ratetherave)

Stijn about Tropical Africa and the sudden connection with Rate The Rave: “Maybe not on first eye, but I see a very beautiful and clear connection between TA and RTR. Delivering high quality content/products with a unique story is at the very core of our businesses. The success formula of Tropical Africa is in my eyes the ability to meet the different needs of their customers - to offer high-quality items, to use genuine storytelling in their communication, to built a community and to contribute to social projects. Because of this, they know to push all the right button over and over again to me and their growth is impressive to see.

I cannot wait what we are up against. One thing is clear - we are going to start a new collaboration where the whole festival scene will gets shaky about! STAY CONNECTED.”

Manvariër Kaisiepo

Manvariër Kaisiepo, or Manny, is 32 years old, gets a lot of energy from spending his spare time with his son Aiden and together with his friends he visited around 20 festivals last summer! - and we do not count the times he went to thuishaven (a weekly festival during summer on Sunday in Amsterdam). So, it was not a surprise he crossed paths with Tropical Africa at a festival. Actually, we met him more than once - which confirms his taste in good music and festival style :). He became a loyal member of the movement and wore The Malabo during Elrow and Thuishaven. Next to all the partying, he stays in shape by visiting the gym regularly. He hits the gym as hard as he hits the festivals. This is a true winner!

(@mannykaisiepo)

“When I’m going to a festival it is every time a new experience, so I really like it to wear a unique shirt. This is why I love to wear The Malabo, a colorful shirt with a beautiful story behind it. I supported project II with my purchase and contributed to the construction of five classrooms in Ghana. This is literally an amazing feeling.”

Remco W. Visser

We met Remco Visser at Mandala festival. With much conviction, he bought a Bucket Hat and have been wearing it almost every day since. In 2005 he finished his study at Artez in Zwolle and nowadays he is a visual artist, a sign painter, a street artist and a beekeeper. His work can be seen at Hotel Credible, at the Honing ‘zonder arbeid geen honing’ and Waalhalla (all three located in Nijmegen). For the party people in Nijmegen and its environs, the art at Drift Festival is also the amazing work of Remco. And there may be a chance that you have seen him on his 3 meter high bike cycling in the city (see below).

(@rwvisser)

Remco about Tropical Africa: “I’m a big fan of Tropical Africa, because they are authentic in multiple ways. They work together with the local people and empower these people and their families. And their patterns and colors are giving me so much inspiration for my work as an artist.”

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Interested to be part of our ‘Humans of Tropical Africa’ page? If you happen to see us at a festival or anywhere else, please do not hesitate to come and say hi, we would love to meet you and know who you are.