FESTIVALS IN THE WESTERN CAPE
Cape Town Jazz Festival
Where: Cape Town
When: March
Website: www.capetownjazzfest.com
Cape Town International Jazz takes the stage every year on the 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. The jazz is accompanied by photographic and other exhibitions.
Lambert's Bay Kreeffees
Where:Lambert's Bay, West Coast
When:March
Website: www.kreeffeeslambertsbaai.co.za
Kreefis Afrikaans for crayfish, and afeescan be both festival and feast. At the Kreeffees, held every March in the West Coast town of Lambert's Bay, you'll 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.
Sedgefield Lakes Festival
Where: Sedgefield
When: March
Website: www.visitknysna.co.za
Held in March, the Sedgefield Lakes Festival has an action-packed programme for adventure and sport lovers. Highlights include a coastal paragliding classic, a rock and surf angling competition, a cycling race and a Gowild adventure race.
Klein Karoo Nationale Kunstefees
Where: Oudtshoorn
When: April
Website: www.kknk.co.za
The Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees in Oudtshoorn 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.
Tulbagh Goes Dutch
Where: Tulbagh
When: April
Website: www.tulbaghtourism.org.za
Tulbagh Tourism describes its two-day Dutch Festival as "a Gezellig Feestjefor the whole family". In April the town's Church Street with its beautiful Cape Dutch architecture hosts cultural activities, appetisingspijs en dranktemptations and authentic treasures. It includes a traditional Dutch beer garden and a tulip exhibition at the Volksmuseum.
Prince Albert Town and Olive Festival
Where: Prince Albert, Swartberg
When: April
The Prince Albert Town and Olive Festival, held in the Swartberg region of the Western Cape in April, offers a whole lot more than just the region's famous olives and wine. There's an art exhibition, beer tents, live music, witblits tastings, 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.
Pink Loerie Mardi Gras
Where: Knysna
When: May
Website: www.pinkloerie.com
The Knysna loerie is a green bird, but the Pink Loerie Mardi Gras is different. A gay festival held in the beautiful coastal town of Knysna in May, the Mardi Gras offers four days of non-stop entertainment for anyone who enjoys a party.
Riebeek Kasteel Olive Festival
Where: Riebeek Kasteel
When: May
Website: www.riebeekvalley.info
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.
Knysna Oyster Festival
Where: Knysna
When: July
Website: www.oysterfestival.co.za
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 molluscular activities, there's live entertainment and lots of sporting events - cycling, running, canoeing, downhill racing and sailing.
Calitzdorp Port and Wine Festival
Where: Calitzdorp, Western Cape
Website: Calitzdorp Port and Wine Festival
The Klein Karoo town of Calitzdorp is the port-wine capital of South Africa. Its annual port festival, held over a weekend in June, is hosted by the eight wine cellars of Calitzdorp. There's a a historical treasure hunt around the town, local arts and crafts, lifestyle market stalls to suit all tastes, the Port Dance, restaurants, food stalls and and the annual South AfricanboulesChampionships, plus much more.
Madame Zingara's Christmas in July
Where: Cape Town
When: July
Website: www.madamezingara.com
Over two weeks in July, sumptuous Cape Town restaurant Madame Zingara hosts up to 10 000 people in a mid-year celebration of Christmas - in aid of the children's charity Ikamva Labantu. The restaurant offers a three-course set menu for around R150, including a complimentary glass of wine. Guests are encouraged to bring small gifts to put under the Christmas tree for the children of Ikamva Labantu. The festival culminates in a huge party, with the best of local food and entertainment, where all the roads around the restaurant are closed off to accommodate 1 500 guests.
Hermanus Whale Festival
Where: Hermanus
When: September
Website: www.whalefestival.co.za
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.
Knysna Gastronomica
Where: Knysna
When: September
Website: www.gastronomicakny.co.za
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.
Prince Albert Agricultural Show
Where: Prince Albert
When: September
Website: www.patourism.co.za
Join the people of Prince Albert as they celebrate their agricultural heritage in September. The show offers homecrafts, art and flowers, horses on show, motorbike obstacle route, sheep and angora goat competitions, local products, delicious food, bar facilities and entertainment for young and old. The farm breakfast and steak braai are a must.
Spier Summer Festival
Where: Stellenbosch
When: December to March
Website: www.spierarts.co.za
In the lush winelands of the Western Cape, at the amphitheatre on the Spier Estate, the annual Spier Summer Festival offers four months of music, opera, dance, stand-up comedy and theatre. First held in 1995, the festival runs from December to March.
