SATGo Webnews August 2004 |
Upcoming Festivals
Oppikoppi Bushveld Festival
This hugely popular musical 'opskop' in the bushveld, now in its
10th year, is due to be held over four days, from 6-9 August, at
its usual venue on a farm near Northam in North-West province. Four
permanent stages have been built to house the large cast of musicians
and bands who promise to serve up the best that South African popular
music has to offer. Tickets for the four days cost R293 and are
limited, so booking is advisable. For information on the full programme
and where to stay, go to www.oppikoppi.co.za
or call 012 346 2011.
Urban Voices Arts Festival
This festival of music and the spoken word, now in its fourth
year, takes place in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town from late
July to 11 August. Hosted by the Southern African Arts Exchange,
Urban Voices brings together leading musicians, writers and poets
from across Africa and beyond.
Heading the musical line-up in August will be Women in Reggae, featuring
the I-Three trio of international stars Rita Marley, Maria Griffiths
and Judy Mowatt, who will perform in Newtown, Johannesburg on 6-7
August, at the BAT Centre in Durban on 8 August and at a venue to
be announced in Cape Town on 11 August.
Among the award-winning poets lined up are Linton Kwesi Johnson
from Jamaica and Jessica Care Moore and Toni Blackman from the US,
who will link up with Don Mattera and local poets. Workshops and
panel discussions are scheduled to be held in all three cities.
Booking is at Computicket.
For more information, call 011 726 6916.
Stellenbosch Wine Festival
The 2004 Stellenbosch Wine Festival will take place from 5-7 August
at the Paul Roos Gymnasium in Piet Retief Street, near the town
centre. More than 400 wines of all varieties will be on offer and
wine-lovers will have the chance to meet some of the top wine personalities
from South Africa's premier wine-growing area. While in Stellenbosch,
visitors take the opportunity of visiting some of the beautiful
wine estates in the surrounding area. For more information, go to
www.wineroute.co.za
or call 021 886 4310.
Standard Bank Joy of Jazz
Newtown Cultural Precinct in Johannesburg's CBD, is the venue
for the ninth annual Standard Bank Joy of Jazz Jo'burg International
Festival, to be held from 26-28 August. Some 210 local and international
musicians - including famous names such as Earl Klugh, Michael Franks
and SA's own Don Laka - are due to appear at the festival, which
kicks off at the Standard Bank Arena on Thursday 26 August before
moving on to nine venues in Newtown on 27-28 August. Visitors to
the jazz festival will also be taken on tours of Johannesburg, City
of Gold. Tickets are on sale from Computicket at
R 125, R175 and R200. For more info, go to www.joyofjazz.co.za
SA History in Action Festival,
Dundee
Relive Talana, Rorke's Drift and other famous battles of the Anglo-Boer
and Anglo-Zulu wars as they are re-enacted live at this unusual
annual festival to be held this year in the grounds of the Talana
Museum in Dundee on 28 August. The full day's programme will include
spectacular Zulu dancing, a pipe band and a military band. Food
and drink and military memorabilia will be on sale.
For more information, go to www.talana.co.za
or call 034 212 2654.
Other August Festivals and
Fairs
Cape WoW (Women of the World)
Festival 2004
Leading up to Women's Day on Monday 9th August, Cape Town's WoW
Festival will feature a gala concert at the Artscape Theatre, a
'Women in the Arts' festival, a festival for kids, authors' talks,
skills workshops, cookery demonstrations, a fun run and other activities
of interest to women.
For further information go to www.capewow.co.za
Hermanus Food & Wine Fair
Hermanus's 8th annual food and wine fair, held each year at the
beginning of the whale breeding season, will take place in the town
from 6-8 August. Excellent wines, cheeses, oils and juices will
be among the products on sale at the fair. For more info, go to
www.overberginfo.com/wineandfoodfair.
McGregor Country Tastes Festival
The pretty Western Cape town of McGregor, less than two hours
drive from Cape Town, will be well worth a visit on Saturday 14
August, when delectable country food and the great wines of the
Robertson Valley will be on offer. Gourmets will find plenty to
eat and drink, and lots of local produce - olives, olive oil, wines
and cheeses - to stock up on. For more information, go to www.mcgregor.org.za/info.html
Upcoming events in August
Cape Outdoor Adventure Expo
Cape Town's biggest outdoor show - a combination of outdoor expo
and tourism showcase - takes place from 6-9 August at Cape Town's
International Conference Centre. This bumper show, which will display
products and opportunities in tourism, outdoor sports, leisure,
African culture and eco-tourism, promises a total outdoor and adventure
weekend for the whole family, with lots of activities to enjoy and
food and drink to savour. Kids will be especially well catered for,
with climbing walls, bungee trampolines, slides, ropes and quad
biking on offer. For more information, go www.outdoorexpo.co.za
or call 011 803 9362.
Cape Town Fashion Week
Over 30 top designers from South Africa and other African countries
will be displaying their creations at this high profile event to
be held at the International Convention Centre from 17-22 August.
For more information, go to www.capetownfashionweek.com
or call 021 424 6482
Wildflower Shows
The coming of Spring sees the first of a spate of agricultural
and wildflower shows in the Western Cape. These include the Lutzville
Agricultural and Flower Show (12-14 Aug), the Clanwilliam Wildflower
Show (26 Aug-1 Sept), the Piketberg Agricultural and Wildflower
Show (26-28 Aug) and the Hopefield Fynbos Show (26-27 Aug).
News & Trends
- Unesco has declared the
Cape Floral Kingdom to be South Africa's sixth World Heritage Site.
The 553 000 hectare area covers eight protected areas, stretching
from the Cape Peninsula to the Eastern Cape. They include Table
Mountain, the De Hoop Nature Reserve, the Boland Mountains, the
Cederberg wilderness and Baviaanskloof. The Cape Floral kingdom
represents less than 0.5% of Africa's land area, but 20% of the
continent's flora.
- Cullinan, the restored
mining town outside Pretoria and source of the world's largest diamond,
is set to become the hub of Gauteng's new Dinokeng tourism project.
Dinokeng spans some 28 000 hectares and is second only to
Ndumo in KZN in its number of birds species, making the area a magnet
for birdwatchers. Dinokeng is a Blue IQ project designed to establish
a premier tourist attraction, including a Big Five Game Reserve,
within easy distance of Johannesburg and Pretoria. As the largest
town in Dinokeng, Cullinan will be the focus of the drive to attract
tourists, investment and jobs to the area.
- The introduction of four
white rhino into the Mapungubwe National Park near Musina in Limpopo,
SA's fifth World Heritage Site, is the first stage of a SA National
Parks programme to re-introduce rare and endangered species into
the park. Mapungubwe will eventually form part of a huge
transfrontier park with Botswana and Zimbabwe. The new park will
have three rest camps offering a variety of accommodation - the
Leokwa Camp, in the style of a Venda village (40 beds), the Limpopo
Forest Tented Camp (32 beds) and the luxury Tshugulu Lodge (14 beds).
In addition, the Vhembe Wilderness Trails camp, close to the spot
where Mpungubwe's famous Golden Rhinoceros was found, can sleep
eight. All these facilities should be open for occupation at the
end of August 2004.
- SA National Parks has
just sold its 100 000 Wildcard. This popular combination
of season ticket and loyalty card has comfortably outstripped the
most optimistic projections. So far, sales of the Wildcard, which
is available to both local and international tourists, have exceeded
R 10 million.
- Durban is to apply for
six more of its beaches to be given Blue Flag status, the sought-after
international standard awarded to beaches that meet the highest
standards of safety, cleanliness and maintenance. The six
beaches are Ansteys, Bay of Plenty, Battery, Country Club, Bronze
and Addington.
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A lot of tourists look for something completely different and
then complain that it is. |
29
Ways to Promote Your Website
by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
How can you get more visitors to your website? What can you do
to stimulate traffic? Here's a checklist of 29 items you need to
consider.
Many of these you're probably doing already; others you meant
to do and forgot about; still others you've never heard of.
Got
any questions?
Would
you like to advertise in this newsletter?
Kind regards
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