February Festivals:
-
Prickly Pear Festival - Uitenhage,
Eastern Cape.
It is held in late February or early March every at
Cuyler Hofstede farm museum near Uitenhage.
It's a day of traditional food such as ginger beer,
pancakes, potjiekos, home-made jam, a spit braai and
fish braai, bunny-chow and home-made pudding.
March Festivals:
-
Lambert's Bay Crayfish Festival,
Lambert's
Bay - Cape West Coast. 2nd week in March.
You can feast on fresh crayfish and get festive at
rock concerts by some of South Africa's favourite
musicians. There's also bungee jumping, aerial displays,
a half-marathon, beer tents and more.
-
Cape Town 2 day Jazz Festival
- Cape
Town, Western Cape. Last weekend in March.
It's a two-day festival featuring some 40 international
and African acts performing on five stages to an
audience of 15 000
-
Sedgefield Lakes Festival
- Sedgefield,
Garden
Route. (March)
Highlights include a coastal paragliding classic,
a rock and surf angling competition, a cycling
race and a Go-wild adventure race.
-
Sasol Scifest - Grahamstown,
Eastern Cape. Last Week of March.
Sasol SciFest, or the National Festival of Science,
Engineering and Technology, is held in late
March in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. Over seven
days it features some 600 events: lectures,
game drives, a laser show, workshops, sunset
shows, robotics competitions, science olympics,
school quizzes, interactive exhibitions, the
PlayFair, field trips, talkshops and a film
festival. Attendance now exceeds 35 000 visitors
every year.
April Festivals:
-
-
Philippolis Witblits Festival
- Philippolis,
Free State. S.West of Bloemfontein.
This festival gets its name from the potent
alcoholic spirit that is well loved in this
area, known as "Witblits". Real local
hospitality, authentic Afrikaner volkspele (folk
games)
-
Tulbagh's Dutch Festival,
Western
Cape.
The town is transformed into a festive carnival
of street stalls and big brass bands. Predictably,
being in the wineland region, food and drink
are the main activities.
-
Splashy Fen Music Festival
- Underberg,
Drakensberg,
KwaZulu Natal. 5th to 9th April, 2007.
Mainstream and alternative rock and pop.
The longest-running and most renowned annual
music festival, Splashy Fen has evolved into
the ultimate outdoor experience for music and
nature lovers alike.
May Festivals:
-
Cheese Festival - Franschhoek,
Western Cape.
New cheese makers, presentations and surprises
in the Cooking Pot and hands on experiences
in the Absa Cheese Theatre promise to attract
food fundis and gourmets alike, to Agri-Expo’s
fifth annual SA Cheese Festival.
Bien Donné, the picturesque Boland farm
between Paarl and Franschhoek, provides the
perfect backdrop for a family day out in the
country.
-
Prince Albert Food and Wine Festival,
Western Cape. 2nd Week in May
Fantastic music, food, wine and homegrown festivities.
-
Riebeek Valley Olive Festival,
Riebeek-Wes
and Riebeek-Kasteel,
Western Cape. 1st Week in May
One of the highlights on the annual South African
culinary calendar, the Riebeek Valley olive festival
offers a variety of restaurant choices and interesting
market food stalls.
-
Robertson Wacky Wine Weekend
- Robertson,
Western Cape. 2nd June, 2006
Participating wineries throughout the region will
be showcasing their best produce and hosting a variety
of activities including cheese and olive tasting;
exhibitions of local art and crafts; 4x4, quad bike,
mountain bike and hiking trails; fun runs; golf and
angling challenges; and a variety of live music shows.
Otherwise, catch oysters paired with
bubbly; petanque; themed dinners such as 'Latin American',
'Bon-Fire Potjiekos' and 'Fondue'; boat cruises and
riverside picnics; and game drives.
The organisers promise something for
everyone — for food fundis, art & music lovers,
outdoor and sporty types; for the old; and the kiddies
-
The Goatshed, Fairview Wine
and Cheese Estate, Paarl.
Western Cape. 2nd June, 2006
Enjoy smoked salmon, fillet carpaccio, pan-fried salmon,
graved lax and fillet steak paired with a range of
superb Fairview wines such as Chardonnay, Viognier,
Merlot and Carignan. .
-
Knysna Oyster Festival - Knysna,
Garden Route. 30th June, 2006
In addition to oyster braais, oyster tasting, oyster-eating
competitions and other molluscular activities, there's
live entertainment and lots of sporting events - cycling,
running, canoeing, downhill racing and sailing.
July Festivals:
-
Franschhoek Bastille Festival,
Western Cape. 16th July, 2006.
The country's finest award-winning chefs and winemakers
are setting up stalls in the town centre, offering
delicious fare from oysters, local and imported cheeses
to charcuterie, hand-made chocolates and salmon trout
from the valley, complemented by Franschhoek's fine
wines.
The town's famous restaurants, craft
shops, galleries, boutiques and food shops will be
offering specials and guests will also be able to
try their hand at boules, listen to musicians or shop
up a storm at market stalls.
-
Grahamstown National Arts Festival
- Grahamstown
- 29th June, to 8th July, 06
The National Arts Festival is one of the most important
event on the South African cultural calendar, and
the biggest annual celebration of the arts on the
African continent.
-
Ellisras Bushveld Festival
- Ellisras,
Limpopo. 1st / 2nd week in July.
Cattle shows, a game auction, horse jumping, dog shows,
agricultural activities, a three-day battle for the
best 4x4 competition, a game farms expo, hunting opportunities,
bird- and tree-identification competitions, boerewors
and other traditional foods, a beer tent and huge
camp fires.
August Festivals:
-
Gariep Kunstefees - Kimberley,
Free State.
30 August to 2 September 2006.
Afrikaanse Cultural festival.
-
Stellenbosch Wine Festival,
Western Cape - 3/4 &5th August, 2006
Paul Roos Gymnasium, Stellenbosch.
Over 400 wines from some 90 of South Africa's foremost
wine cellars will be available for tasting, along
with a comprehensive program of festivities, including
winemakers tackling each other in cook-offs, historic
tours, kiddies entertainment area, tutored wine-tastings,
food, crafts and a Brandy Emporium.
Entrance fee is R70 and includes a tasting glass.
Bookings can also be made at Computicket.
-
Oppikoppi Bushveld Festival
- Northam, North
West Province. 1st week in August.
Oppikoppi has helped establish many South African
musicians' careers, but it's not for the faint-hearted.
This is real bushveld: hot, dry and covered in red
dust and thorn trees. Expect to shower a lot when
you get home
- Hantam Vleisfees - Calvinia,
Northern
Cape. Last week in August.
Calvinia is sheep country, and this festival celebrates
meat. There's meat braaied, stewed, curried, in pita,
on sosaties, in potjies - you can even pick up a done-to-perfection
sheep's head for a mere R30. First held in 1989, the
three-day Hantam Vleisfees has a music concert, street
party, vintage car rally and, a highlight for many,
the Miss Vleisfees competition - a glittering affair
with dinner and dancing.
September Festivals:
- Aardklop Cultural Festival - Potchefstroom,
North West Province. Last week in September.
Cultural
- Hermanus Whale Festival, Western Cape. Last
Week in September.
To mark the migration of the Southern right whales to
Walker Bay at Hermanus
- Johannesburg Good Food & Wine Show - Johannesburg
- 7/8/9 & 10th September, 2006
Gallagher Estate, 19 Richards Drive, Midrand,
Gauteng
Discover sensational kitchen accessories, never-before-seen
gadgets and taste food from around the world. Explore
over 200 exhibits from award-winning wines, foreign
beers and South African spirits to delicious delicacies,
fresh produce and mouth-watering masterpieces.
Learn new tricks when you watch your
favourite celebrity chef cook up a storm in the Chefs
in Action Theatre. Wine tasting, gourmet braaing or
Champagne and oysters, savour your favourite taste sensation
while discovering a host of new and exciting ones.
- South African National Gold Panning Championships,
Pilgrim's
Rest, Mpumalanga.
3rd Week in September.
Contestants will be vying for gold nuggets as they pay
tribute to our gold rush ancestors of old.
- Woodstock Festival - Hartbeeshoek, North West
Province. Near Hartbeespoort
Dam.
The largest youth-oriented music and lifestyle festival
in South Africa. In addition to mainstream music, the
festival offers a market of crafters and alternative
lifestyle products over four days.
- Southern Cross Music Festival - Mooi
River, Kwazulu-Natal
- 22nd to 25th September.
A three-day event in Hidden Valley on the banks of KwaZulu-Natal's
beautiful Mooi River.
The performances will take place on the River Stage
alongside the Mooi River, with an emphasis on blues,
folk, jazz, light rock and ambience. The line-up encompasses
Southern Cross favourites and newer bands. Dan Patlansky,
Richard Warne, Butter, Wendy New, The Hairy Legged Lentil
Eaters, Guy Buttery, Sitter,Undersound, Starplayer,
Plush, Nimbus Experience, The New Academics, Josie Field,
Lance Goldman and more. Free Stage on Sat/Sun.
- The Fouriesburg Asparagus Festival - Fouriesburg,
Free
State - Held in the last weekend of September. It
offers local arts and crafts, a mountainbike challenge,
a fun run, a potjiekos competition, live music, horse
events and lots more.
-
Afrikaanse Music Festival -
Vredendal,
Cape West Coast during the last week in October.
-
Awesome Africa Music Festival
- Durban.
1st Week in October
It has three stages of non-stop music, with over 200
artists from more than 20 countries. The focus is
on collaboration with musicians from Africa and beyond.
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