It’s not just about the vibe. For the women playing Vinyl Camp 2026, spinning vinyl is a craft, a career and, increasingly, a business, in an industry that still doesn’t always make room for them.
JOHANNESBURG, 15 August 2026 – DJing gets sold as a party trick: good taste, a decent playlist, a fun night out. What doesn’t always make the poster is the years of graft behind it, the gear investment, the bookings chased, the reputation built one set at a time, in an industry where the business side has historically been built by and for men.
This Women’s Month, Vinyl Camp, South Africa’s premier outdoor festival celebrating the art of vinyl, live DJ culture and the great outdoors, is putting that reality front and centre through Women Behind the Wheels of Steel, a spotlight on the women DJs confirmed to play Vinyl Camp 2026 at Doorndraai Dam Nature Reserve in Mokopane, Limpopo. This is not a feel-good empowerment piece. It’s a look at what it actually takes for women to build a real career behind the decks, and why that’s harder to do, and more important to recognise, than the industry tends to admit.
“I am still building, but I believe men are more accommodating these days, they enjoy having us in this space,” says Shaar “TheShah” Leshaba, one of the featured DJs, whose entry into vinyl came through a music school that was specifically looking to train a woman to play. “Also, it’s easier because I’m in a group of fellow vinyl lovers, Vinyl Kulture Krew, they have been very supportive, they come to my gigs, they coach me and I learn a lot from them musically and otherwise. They make this journey much easier. I think for the better, I see more women’s faces on posters and line-ups. If we can have a women-only line-up. It means we are moving in the right direction.”
For Grace Fusi “Fusion” Moleko, Vinyl Camp had been on her bucket list for a while. In 2025 she had planned to attend as a patron, just to soak in the culture, but instead got the call to play, and she took the stage at Vinyl Camp for the first time. “That honestly felt like an act of divine intervention,” she says. “It wasn’t just another booking… It felt like one of those full-circle moments that reminds you you’re exactly where you’re meant to be.”, For Fusi, the climb has been steeper, and more deliberate. “Building a space for myself in a male-dominated scene has been both challenging and rewarding,” she says. “I’ve had to work twice as hard to let my craft speak for itself. There have been moments where I’ve felt underestimated, but those experiences pushed me to become more intentional about my music, my preparation and my consistency. What keeps me going is remembering why I started in the first place, my genuine love of music. Every set is an opportunity for me to tell a story and connect with people through music, and that’s what I want to be remembered for. Not simply being a woman behind the decks but being a DJ with a sound and identity that resonates.”
That distinction, artist first, gender second, is exactly the shift underway across South African music right now. Women DJs and vinyl collectors are no longer a novelty booking or a box-ticking exercise on a line-up. They are running their own brands, building followings, negotiating bookings and turning a craft that demands real technical skill into a sustainable career, often while doing twice the work to be taken half as seriously. Vinyl Camp’s 2026 line-up reflects that shift directly, not as a gesture, but because the talent is simply there.
It’s a reminder, too, of the scale of the industry sitting behind the culture. South Africa’s live music and festival economy runs on bookings, equipment, branding, touring and the freelance networks that keep artists working year-round, and DJing sits squarely inside that creative economy. Every woman building a career behind the decks is also building a small business: managing her own brand, her own bookings, her own growth, in a space where the infrastructure hasn’t always been built with her in mind.
It’s a fitting moment for this story to land. Vinyl Camp 2026 marks a milestone year for the festival, with the addition of internationally acclaimed Italian house duo Harley & Muscle, celebrating 30 years in the industry, set to make their only African performance at the event. The festival, which welcomed more than 1,500 attendees in 2025 from South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Namibia, has grown from a regional gathering into a genuine platform for international cultural exchange, built on the same principle driving this story: that talent and graft build culture, not shortcuts.
Vinyl Camp is more than a festival, it is a cultural movement built on the art of vinyl, authentic experience, and the legacy of the communities that keep it alive. This Women’s Month, that legacy includes the women proving that behind every great set is a business being built, one gig at a time.
About Vinyl Camp
Vinyl Camp is South Africa’s premier outdoor festival celebrating the art of vinyl, live DJ culture and the beauty of the great outdoors. Held annually at Doorndraai Dam Nature Reserve in Mokopane, Limpopo, the festival offers uninterrupted music, authentic cultural experiences and an unforgettable camping adventure. In 2025, Vinyl Camp welcomed more than 1,500 attendees from across Southern Africa. Vinyl Camp 2026 will feature Italian house duo Harley & Muscle for their only African performance, marking the festival’s growth into a globally recognised platform for cultural exchange.
