Events in October

Ride MTB Expo

I can­not believe that we’re already at the end of September the last few weeks have just flown by. What this does mean is that we’re head­ing into October which offers us a host of fun events to keep us busy and out and about.

The Western Cape is def­in­itely hav­ing a bumper month with so many events you are com­pletely spoilt for choice and the rest of South Africa isn’t doing to badly itself. Don’t for­get to dust off your witches hat and cauldron as Halloween is here on 31 October and this year it will be a treat! Continued

Fugard Festival in Nieu-Bethesda this Weekend

Fugard Festival

If you are lost for some­thing to do over the Heritage Day long week­end why not book last minute accom­mod­a­tion in the Eastern Cape town of Nieu-Bethesda and attend the Fugard Festival?  Athol Fugard was born in 1932 in the town of Middelburg and went on to become South Africa’s most import­ant play­wright and cer­tainly the first to gain an inter­na­tional repu­ta­tion, and is now renowned as one of the worlds greatest playwrights.

The 2010 ABSA Fugard Festival will keep you enter­tained with a num­ber of plays (includ­ing four Fugard plays).  The fest­ival is the only place in the world where you will be able to see so many Fugard plays in one fest­ival – right here in the Eastern Cape!  Apart from the Fugard plays there is also the loc­ally pro­duced Hotel Paradiso ... Continued

Events in September

Gariep Kunstefees

September brings with it the start of spring and although we haven’t had much rain this winter I am look­ing for­ward to the beauty that spring brings with her. Flowers, blos­soms and a host of fun activ­it­ies and events are tak­ing place all around the country.

Don’t just sit on the couch this month, make sure you get up and get going with one or more of the events this September. Don’t for­get to make use of Friday 24, it’s a pub­lic hol­i­day and quite a spe­cial one at that – Heritage Day and National Braai Day, get yourselves ready! Continued

Events in August

Can you believe we are steam­ing ahead in the second half of the year? With World Cup fever cool­ing down we can thank all of the event and fest­ival organ­isers who are going to keep us busy this August. And oh my good­ness how busy we will be ... what with all the sport­ing events and fest­ivals tak­ing place around the coun­try there is sure to be some­thing to pique your interest and get you out and about!

Women's Day Swim

Sporting Events: For those of you who don’t like to spend much time on the couch and want to be a part of the action, have a look at these act­ive events tak­ing place.

Women’s Day Swim: If you’re brave enough to dip into the icy water of the Cape Peninsula then make sure you’re at the Women’s Day Swim on Monday 9 August 2010. This swim forms part of the Cadiz Swim Series lead­ing up to the Cadiz Freedom Swim in 2011. Everyone is invited to Camps Bay 0n the day to par­ti­cip­ate Continued

Events in June – it's not just about the World Cup

Events in June 2010

June 2010, for many people this means that finally the Soccer World Cup will be here and that means some­thing for every South African. Either you will be excited by this event and will be plan­ning your life around the matches or you will be look­ing for other things to do. We’re once again bring­ing you a brief update on the upcom­ing events and fest­ivals around South Africa but with a bit of a twist. We thought we’d also let you know about some of the events spe­cific­ally about the World Cup (see World Cup Events below) and a few shows you can catch at your local theatre.

June is also sig­ni­fic­ant in South Africa’s his­tory and we cel­eb­rate Youth Day (pre­vi­ously known as Soweto Day) on 16 June. This day com­mem­or­ates the events sur­round­ing Continued

Events in May — Wine, wedding, wheels and other wonderful events

Events in May 2010

The days are get­ting shorter and the nights are longer — winter is on its way. But that doesn't mean the fun stops in Sunny South Africa — What can you look for­ward to this com­ing month? The month of May is filled with wine, wed­ding, cul­tural and agri­cul­tural shows includ­ing import­ant sport­ing events such as the Cadiz Swim and Comrades, and some great annual events.

Book lov­ers will des­cend on Franschhoek for the annual Literary Festival and the Travel Trade will take over Durban for Indaba 2010 in May. So don't let the slightly colder weather con­fine you to your couch just yet (save that for watch­ing the 2010 World Cup in June and July if you haven't got tick­ets to every match). For the next few weeks, get out there and join in the fun... Continued

Events in April 2010 — from marathons to festivals and plenty in between

Easter Weekend

What a diverse month we will be hav­ing in April 2010, with events of all shapes, sizes, tastes and kinds. Nearly all of our nine provinces are full to burst­ing with fun things to do so you are sure to find some­thing that will interest you.

We cel­eb­rate the Easter week­end nation­wide from 2–5 April. This means that both Friday 2 (Good Friday) and Monday 5 (Family Day) are pub­lic hol­i­days. (For those of you who didn’t know Easter Monday was renamed Family Day in 1995. Interesting I thought!). On to this months events ... Continued

The Cape of Good Festivals ...

Cape Town Festival

Festivals, car­ni­vals and fun times are on offer in Cape Town this March. There is so much to do I’m find­ing it dif­fi­cult to find a spare minute in my social cal­en­dar. So I thought I would share some of the fun and excit­ing events that are tak­ing place in and around the Mother City this month so you can fill your diar­ies as well ...

... Cape Town Carnival
The Cape Town Carnival starts everything off from 18–20 March. What is this car­ni­val you might be ask­ing, it’s not just another place to eat some food and wander around it is a fest­ival with the primary object­ive of bring­ing the diverse people who make up the City of Cape Town together. Continued

Cape Horticultural Society’s Spring Flower and Garden Show

For new inform­a­tion about upcom­ing shows see: Cape Horticultural Society’s Flower & Garden Show

Spring Fever is in the air! Why not visit the Cape Horticultural Society’s Spring Flower and Garden Show?

Scheduled for Sat 19^th and Sunday 20^th September at the Alphen Centre in Constantia, this reg­u­lar Celebration of Spring fea­tures a dis­play of inter­est­ing and unusual, as well as com­mon or garden  plants,  all grown by mem­bers of the Society in their Peninsula gar­dens.  Outside stall­hold­ers will have many garden related products for sale and there will also be light refresh­ments avail­able ... Continued

Back from Rocking the Daisies

At Rocking the Daisies

Starting just three years ago, the folk and rock fest­ival, “Rocking the Daisies,” has fast become one of the best music fest­ivals in South Africa. It takes place on a farm in Darling, on the West Coast, and is one hours drive from Cape Town, mak­ing it a pleas­ure to attend for most loc­als. Combining eco, green and live music themes, it con­stantly aims to edu­cate fol­low­ers on liv­ing more con­sciously, giv­ing back to the envir­on­ment and redu­cing their car­bon footprint.

Although mes­sages are dif­fi­cult to get across to loud and drunk rev­el­lers, the organ­isers pull out all the stops to be con­sist­ent. Most mer­chand­ise is made from Hemp, bio-degradable mater­i­als replace styra­phome, trees are planted to make up for the car­bon emis­sions of all the fest­ival goers driv­ing to the venue, who are also encour­aged to bring at least 2 pas­sen­gers for the drive and even the pro­grams are prin­ted on recycled paper. Continued

Festivals in the Cape

Cape Festivals

The amaz­ing vari­ety of fest­ivals in and around the Western Cape is evid­ence of the fact that Capetonians like to cel­eb­rate. Having recently exper­i­enced the epic, eco-friendly Rocking the Daisies music fest­ival in Darling, I can attest to the fact Cape Town’s party spirit is alive and well.

Capetonians don’t just rock ‘n roll how­ever. From the Whale Festival in Hermanus, cel­eb­rat­ing the town’s status as one of the whale watch­ing sites in the Southern Hemisphere, to the Cape Town International Jazz fest­ival, bring­ing the best per­formers from all over the globe, it seems every taste is accom­mod­ated. Continued

Design for sustainable living expo in Hermanus

Contributed by Wanda of www.urbansprout.co.za

There is some­thing so excit­ing about this time of year. Yes, it rains a great deal in the Western Cape (who’s com­plain­ing, it’s not like we get a lot!) but it’s also the time of the com­ing of the whales to our shores.

Whale

I love the whales. These beau­ti­ful, gentle, giants show utter trust in human­ity when they enter our bays to pro­duce their young. I wouldn’t trust human beings with quite the same level of humil­ity and grace (hey, I know what they’re cap­able of!) par­tic­u­larly when you take a step back and reflect on the cur­rent state of the envir­on­ment. Yet people flock in their thou­sands to recip­roc­ate the con­fid­ent peace of these great beasts, and to catch a glimpse that leaves each of us feel­ing touched by some­thing infin­itely exceptional.

But back to humans and our com­mit­ment to afflu­ence and eco­nomic growth at all costs, that is lit­er­ally cost­ing us the earth. We live in won­der­ful, yet alarm­ing times where rad­ical changes are called for. Where a pro­found shift in our value sys­tem and our take on the world needs to take place, or there will be little left to enjoy or call our own, and whales will be a dis­tant memory, some­thing about which we tell our grand­chil­dren, but which they will never have the joy of see­ing. Continued

The Grahamstown Festival

For the cur­rent National Arts Festival Programme please see National Arts Festival Programme. 

Grahamstown Festival

It was open­ing night and adren­alin and lack of sleep were fuel­ing an unhealthy intens­ity in the house we were stay­ing in. We had arrived in Grahamstown after a ten hour drive which ended with the act­ors in the back seat trad­ing more elbow jabs and knees to the mid­sec­tion than in a Thai kick­box­ing match. We were in Grahamstown, a small town in the Eastern Cape, for the National Arts Festival, a high­light on South African arts cir­cuit occur­ing at the end of June/ begin­ning of July every year.

The first thing to know about Grahamstown is that it is abso­lutely freez­ing, which only seemed to give the the­at­rical types more reason for hys­teria and may­hem, little dra­matic dynamos gen­er­at­ing their own internal sources of heat. For the rest of us proper winter cloth­ing is essen­tial. Stretched over about 10 days, the fest­ival is a melt­ing pot of the most bril­liant, cre­at­ive and utterly strange things the coun­try has to offer. At the cent­ral mar­ket, which serves as the hub for the day­time activ­it­ies, you’ll be accos­ted by everything from half-naked hyp­not­ists and hard­selling Hare Krishnas to act­ors evan­gel­ising about why their par­tic­u­lar play will change your life. The mar­ket is also home to a cor­nu­copia of traders selling everything from did­jeri­doos to cures for arth­ritis, so it’s a pefect place for unusual gifts. Continued