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February Festivals:
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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:
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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 - Kysna,
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
- Prince Albert Agricultural Show - Prince
Albert, Western Cape. 12th to 14 October
Join the people of Prince Albert as they celebrate their agricultural
heritage at the Show Grounds. Homecrafts, art & flowers,
horses on show, motorbike obstacle route, sheep and angora goat
competitions, local products, delicious food - the farm breakfast
and steak braai are a must, bar facilities, entertainment for
young and old.
- 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.
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