Cape Town a World Top 10 Party City

Lonely Planet has cre­ated a new guide, the “1000 Ultimate Experiences” and South Africa can feel proud as Cape Town has been awar­ded a place of hon­our in the world’s top 10 party cit­ies. Other coun­tries in the top 10 are Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Montreal, Canada and Thessaloniki, Greece.

But what makes Cape Town such a unique place and espe­cially fab­ulous for a party? Well, Lonely Planet only hints at the pos­sib­il­it­ies when they sug­gest one could “lux­uri­ate on some of the world's best beaches by day and kick back under the moon­light at suave cock­tail bars by night”.

Whilst on hol­i­day in Cape Town or if you are lucky enough to reside here, as I am, we are for­tu­nate enough to have a myriad of fant­astic places to visit and things to do dur­ing the day. Spend a lazy day on one of our beau­ti­ful beaches, take a walk through Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens or indulge in a dec­ad­ent lunch and some wine at one of the many wine estates in the area ... Continued

Tiny Paper Umbrellas — Cape Town for cocktail connoisseurs

Cape Town Cocktails

So we didn’t invent cock­tails, but South Africans have def­in­itely embraced the tra­di­tion of put­ting (often lethal) com­bin­a­tions of spir­its into a glass, adding some exotic fruit or a tiny paper umbrella, and giv­ing it a funny name.

Once the reserve of beach­side resorts and TV shows about upwardly mobile, thirty-something women in New York, the cock­tail bar has in recent years become a fix­ture of Cape Town’s night­life. You’d be hard pressed to find a night­spot in the city that couldn’t mix you up a decent drink, but there are a few places you simply can’t miss out on … Continued

Live Music in Cape Town

Cape Town Music

Crammed inside a smoky Cape Town club watch­ing a floppy-haired, skinny jean-wearing indie band prance around on stage, it can be dif­fi­cult to put your cur­rent musical appre­ci­ation into its proper his­tor­ical con­text. And con­sid­er­ing that last round of tequilas at the bar, prob­ably unwise. That said, it can be an inter­est­ing trip look­ing at just how much musical his­tory is con­cealed beneath the sur­face of Cape Town's nightlife.

Music has always been part of Cape Town's leg­acy, from the earli­est music of the Cape indi­gen­ous peoples to the folk music brought by European set­tlers to the area. During apartheid music played an import­ant role, with African jazz maes­tros and Afro-pop queens like Brenda Fassi (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Fassie) provid­ing the soundtrack for revolu­tion. Anti-apartheid bands such as Bright Blue also provided musical susten­ance for many of the stu­dent pop­u­la­tion with songs like “Weeping”, an allegory for the ignor­ance and bru­tal­ity of the apartheid sys­tem, becom­ing a ral­ly­ing cry for white stu­dents who stood against the apartheid gov­ern­ment. Continued

Cape Town Theatre

Cape Town Theatre

When it comes to the dra­matic arts, the Mother City is a real diva. Home to a num­ber of theatres and per­form­ing arts groups as well as the world-class University of Cape Town arts and drama schools, you’ll never be at a loss for the­at­rical enter­tain­ment when vis­it­ing the city. Whether it be Shakespearean drama, dance, stand-up com­edy, Theatresports, or exper­i­mental fringe theatre, you’re bound to find some­thing to suit your taste.

For starters, as a theatre buff, you can hardly afford to miss out on the Maynardville exper­i­ence. The Maynardville Open-Air theatre is situ­ated in Wynberg and every year plays host to a pro­fes­sional pro­duc­tion of a Shakespearean play. Consisting of a beau­ti­ful wooden stage set under a can­opy of trees and flanked by a statue of the Bard him­self, Maynardville is truly the African home of all things Shakespearean. Often giv­ing fresh new takes on clas­sic pieces these pro­duc­tions go a long way in breath­ing new life to these canon­ical plays. Be sure to watch out for some of South Africa’s vet­eran act­ors at work. Jeremy Crutchley, for instance, has given some spec­tac­u­lar per­form­ances – as Shylock in the Merchant of Venice in 2008 and Malvolio in Twelfth Night. Continued