Y’s First Touch returns to Johannesburg for its second edition, gathering football, padel, music and youth culture in a day dedicated to participation, community and connection.
Sport has always had a social life that goes beyond the game itself. The pitch is where people compete, but it is also where friendships form, music plays, communities gather and culture gets expressed.
Y’s First Touch is leaning into that space.
Following its inaugural edition in 2025, the event returns to Marks Park Sports Club in Emmarentia on 12 September, gathering 5-a-side diski, padel, live music, DJs, food and interactive experiences, in a day dedicated to the idea that sport can be a meeting point for different parts of youth culture.
Building a World Around the Game
The focus of First Touch is squarely on the sporting programme. Competitions will include 5-a-side diski and padel with R25 000 in prizes up for grabs.
But it has been engineered in such a way that participants do not necessarily have to be on the pitch.
Friends can come to support their teams, spectators can enjoy the entertainment programme, and those just looking for a Saturday out can move seamlessly between the different components of the event.
That difference is key to the way First Touch has been conceived. The sporting competition provides the underpinning, while everything else creates the ambience. This year’s football action will feature personalities including Masterpiece YVK, Uncool MC and Major Steez as captains. The padel experience will see Ayanda MVP, DJ Fae Fae, Fif_Laaa, Hey Shawty and Perceey ASF in action.
When the Soundtrack Becomes Part of the Experience
Music plays as great a role as the sports themselves.
The entertainment line-up includes Y’s Thatohatsi and XDuppy, Uncool MC, Masterpiece YVK, Shakes & Les, W4de, Venom, DJ Tshegu, Pedabotic and K1llbrady. Rather than separating the sporting programme from the entertainment, First Touch brings them together in the same space. It creates an environment more akin to a lifestyle experience than a traditional tournament, full of music, food, drinks and brand activations surrounding the games. It reflects the way young audiences are consuming culture: blending their interests rather than finding ways to separate them.
Someone can turn up for football and stay for the music, meet friends, try padel and spend the afternoon in a space bringing all of these interests together
Making Participation Part of the Culture
This year, First Touch is also looking to extend the experience for fans and participants before the games even start.
An early morning run-down organised in partnership with Vault Strength Club will kick off at 6:30AM, allowing runners and fitness enthusiasts to congregate before the sporting and entertainment action really gets under way.
The addition of the morning event adds to the inclusivity of the festival as a whole, as it provides another avenue for people to get involved, compete for prizes, or simply network and spend time together in a fun environment. That ethos is core to what Y is trying to achieve with First Touch, according to Marketing Manager Fanele Moloi.
“First Touch is about creating a platform for the youth to congregate, compete and have fun, as well as experience the passion of Y as part of youth culture. This year’s event builds on last year’s success by creating an environment that is about much more than the sporting events themselves.”
Designing a Day People Want to Be Part Of
There is a reason events which combine sport, music and lifestyle have been so successful as cultural platforms. They offer a diverse range of participation opportunities for the attendees.
As a participant, you can be a player, a supporter, a runner, see DJs, mingle and find something new, meet your friends, or just enjoy a Saturday out and about.
First Touch offers the flexibility of a multi-layered event. The 2026 edition will have morning, afternoon and evening components with the run beginning at 6:30am, the sports tournament starting at 9am and running until 5pm, with an extended First Touch offering continuing until 8pm.
It creates a much more expansive feel to the day, as opposed to just a sporting event, utilising the space of the Marks Park as a site of both competition and culture. For Y, this is the ultimate goal of the event.
First Touch capitalises on the sport as a platform for the celebration of the broader culture, with the creation of a space where the youth can compete, participate, socialise, and be immersed in the lifestyle on offer. The game brings everyone through the gates, but it is the surrounds that keep them there.
