FESTIVALS IN SOUTH AFRICA
FESTIVALS IN SOUTH AFRICA
Festivals, festivals, festivals…………… that is what we have to offer you all year round. South Africa has a celebration for every event, art form, food, place and agricultural commodity. From February to November South Africa offers our visitors a wide selection of festivals. Here are some of Africa’s best excuses for a party:
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FEBRUARY
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Prickly Pear Festival – Uitenhage, Nelson Mandela Bay, Eastern Cape The Prickly Pear Festival held in late February or early March at Cuyler Hofstede farm. 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
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Splashy Fen – Underberg, KwaZulu-Natal Every year the Splashy Fen music festival attracts thousands of people to a farm near Underberg, for a feast of mainstream and alternative rock and pop. The site is fully equipped and there are also some interesting market stalls. There are great bed-and-breakfasts in nearby towns for those who believe music festivals can be enjoyed without mud. |
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Lambert’s Bay Crayfish Festival – Lambert Bay, Western Cape An annual event held on the 2nd week in March on the West Coast. Here you will be able to feast on fresh crayfish and get festive at the rock concerts by some of South Africa’s favorite musicians. There’s also bungee jumping, aerial displays, a half-marathon, beer tents and more. |
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Tonteldoos peach Festival – Village of Tonteldoos near Dullstroom, Mpumalanga This event happens in late March or early April in the village of Tonteldoos. It offers peaches and pretty much everything that can be made from the fruit, including peach mampoer. |
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Sasol Scifest – Grahamstown, Eastern Cape SciFest Africa is held in late March. Over 7 days it features some 600 events: lectures, game drives, a laser show, workshops, robotics competitions, science Olympics, school quizzes, interactive exhibitions, the PlayFair, field trips, talk shops and a film festival. Attendance now exceeds 35 000. |
APRIL
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Klein Karoo National Art Festival – Oudtshoorn, Western Cape The Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees features well-known and young up-and-coming artists in dance and theatre. Started as an Afrikaans alternative to the mainly English National Arts Festival, KKNK has 200 different shows on three different stages. |
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Splashy Fen – Underberg, KwaZulu-Natal Every year the Splashy Fen music festival attracts thousands of people to a farm near Underberg, for a feast of mainstream and alternative rock and pop. The site is fully equipped and there are also some interesting market stalls. There are great bed-and-breakfasts in nearby towns for those who believe music festivals can be enjoyed without mud. |
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Tulbagh Goes Dutch & Cheese Festival – Tulbagh, Western Cape Tulbagh Tourism describes its two-day Dutch Festival as “a Gezellig Feestje for the whole family”. In April the town’s Church Street with its beautiful Cape Dutch architecture hosts cultural activities; appetising spijs en drank temptations and authentic treasures. It includes a traditional Dutch beer garden and a tulip exhibition at the Volksmuseum. Strut down Church Street bustling with Dutch delicacies ranging from krakelingen to chunky chocolades, haringbroodjes to creamy cheese from Holland. |
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Prince Albert Town and Olive Festival - Prince Albert, Western Cape Held in the Swartberg region of the Western Cape in April, this festival offers a whole lot more than just the region’s famous olives and wine. There’s an art exhibition, beer tents, live music, crafts for kids, historic tours, a cycle race, an olive pip-spitting competition, culinary demonstrations, a midnight ghost walk, stalls, cabaret, a dance and more. |
MAY
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Riebeek Kasteel Olive Festival – Riebeek Kasteel, Western Cape The Riebeek Kasteel Olive Festival takes place in the Swartland area of the Western Cape in May. A feast of wine and the best olives in SA, the festival also has an art competition, live entertainment, stalls and lots of food. |
JUNE
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National Arts Festival – Grahamstown, Eastern Cape The National Arts Festival, held in late June or early July every year, is South Africa’s oldest, biggest and best-known arts festival. The 10-day event offers culture hounds every indulgence of theatre, music, song, dance, film and a whole lot more. If there’s one South African festival you have to attend, this is it. |
JULY
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Knysna Oyster Festival – Knysna, Western Cape The coastal town of Knysna is famous for its oysters, and increasingly famous for the July festival that celebrates them. In addition to oyster braais, oyster tasting, oyster-eating competitions and other molecular activities, there’s live entertainment and lots of sporting events. |
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Ellisras Bushveld Festival – Ellisras, Limpopo This Festival takes place in early July in the heart of the bushveld. The festival includes cattle shows, a game auction, horse jumping, dog shows, agricultural activities, a three-day battle for the best 4×4 competition, hunting opportunities, bird- and tree-identification competitions, traditional food, a beer tent and huge camp fires. |
| Calitzdorp Port Festival – Calitzdorp, Western Cape The Klein Karoo town of Calitzdorp is the port-wine capital of South Africa. Its annual port festival, held over a weekend in July, showcases the top 15 South African port makers. There’s a blind port tasting judged by SA’s top wine critics, a potjiekos competition and ostrich farm tours, as well as the annual South African boules championships. |
AUGUST
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Oppikoppi Bushveld Festival – Northam, North West Held on the bushveld farm of Oppikoppi, this festival offers three permanent thatched stages, a smaller comedy stage and a stage for more chilled music at the top of the koppie. Oppikoppi has helped establish many South African musicians’ careers, but it’s not for the faint-hearted. This is real bushveld: hot and dry, and everywhere red dust and thorn trees. |
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Cellar Rats Wine Festival – Magaliesberg, Gauteng Taste South Africa’s best wines in a tranquil outdoor setting in Magaliesberg. Held every year in August, the Cellar Rats Wine Festival is a day of wine tasting, with picnic baskets for sale and many activities for the kids. Enjoy huge shady trees, lush green grass and an abundance of birdlife on the banks of the picturesque Magalies River. |
SEPTEMBER
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Arts Alive – Johannesburg, Gauteng Arts Alive, held every September since 1992, features a heady mix of dance, visual art, poetry and music at venues in Johannesburg. The main concert, held at the Johannesburg Stadium, headlines international superstars such as 50 Cent and Busta Rhymes. Over 600 artists perform during the four-day festival, with most shows at various venues in Newtown. |
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Aardklop Arts Festival – Potchefstroom, Free State This Festival offers a feast of arts and an all-round good jol for five days. First held in 1998, Aardklop has over 90 productions, with classical music, jazz, hard rock, cabaret, visual arts, theatre, opera, poetry and more. |
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Hermanus Whale Festival – Hermanus, Western Cape Every year, southern right whales travel thousands of miles to the Cape south coast to mate and calve in the bays. Join the villagers of Hermanus for an entertainment-packed festival, in the town with the best land-based whale watching in the world. |
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Gariep Kunstefees – Kimberley, Northern Cape Now in its sixth year, the Gariep Kunstefees (arts festival) has an impressive line-up of local musicians, a film festival showcasing South Africa’s new film-makers, as well as art exhibitions and children’s theatre. |
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Knysna Gastronomica – Knysna, Western Cape A new addition to South Africa’s festival circuit, the Knysna Gastronomica is a celebration of good food, wine and culture in the coastal town of Knysna. |
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White Mountain Festival – Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal The White Mountain Folk Festival in the Central Drakensberg mountain range offers great music in an awesome setting for three days in September. Featuring acoustic performances by some of the South Africa’s top folk musicians, the festival is held at White Mountain Lodge in the foothills of the Giant’s Castle Nature Reserve. |
OCTOBER
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Herman Charles Bosman Weekend – Groot Marico, North West Herman Charles Bosman was one of South Africa’s greatest writers, and this weekend festival celebrates his work in dry town of Groot Marico, the setting for many of his stories. Some of South Africa’s top actors read from and perform Bosman’s work; there’s also good food, good company – and lots of mampoer. |
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Rocking the Daisies Music and Lifestyle Festival – Cloof Wine Estate, Darling, Cape West Coast The Rocking the Daisies Music and Lifestyle Festival features top South African bands performing a wide variety of music, as well as comedy, burlesque dancing, acoustic jams, and giant African puppeteering. The Food Village looks after the stomach and the Traders Market offers exciting goodies. |
NOVEMBER
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Ficksburg Cherry Festival – Ficksburg, Free State One of the oldest festivals in South Africa – first held in 1969 – the Ficksburg Cherry Festival now attracts around 20 000 visitors to this small eastern Free State town every November. The scenery is magnificent, and the festival offers cherry and asparagus tastings, tours, picnics, music, and the Miss Cherry Blossom and Miss Cherry Pip competitions. |
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Whatever you prefer or enjoy doing let NO RUSH TOURS be your guide to the best FESTIVAL South Africa has to offer!!!
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