By Roxanne Reid
From ethnic music to Hip Hop dancing, from singing to one-act plays, even a spring parade, there are lots of reasons to love the Darling Voorkamerfest at the beginning of September each year. After visiting the 10th Voorkamerfest this year, here are my top 6 reasons.
From ethnic music to Hip Hop dancing, from singing to one-act plays, even a spring parade, there are lots of reasons to love the Darling Voorkamerfest at the beginning of September each year. After visiting the 10th Voorkamerfest this year, here are my top 6 reasons.
1. Its uniqueness. People open their homes to the public and various artists perform in their voorkamer (living room). I don’t think this occurs anywhere else in the country.
2. Strolling around the food stalls before or after a show to pick out something to eat while you sit on hay bales or stand near a roaring fire to keep warm in the chill of evening.
2. Strolling around the food stalls before or after a show to pick out something to eat while you sit on hay bales or stand near a roaring fire to keep warm in the chill of evening.
Lots of food stalls to choose from
3. Enjoying the buzz as you watch the excitement of the children participating in the colourful Spring Parade up and down the main road of Darling, seeing how much they enjoy being the centre of attention.
The Spring Parade down Darling's main road
4. Witnessing the sense of community involvement, chatting to taxi drivers who ferry you to the various venues, and joining the throng of locals and ‘festinos’ wandering the cordoned-off street in front of Evita se Perron.
Host and visitors outside one of the 'voorkamers' used in this year's Voorkamerfest
5. The chance to visit people’s homes, from spacious and gracious to pint-sized and simple RDP homes in Darling East. Without exception, the hosts were welcoming and friendly, delighted to be part of this community arts festival in spite of having some 300 people stream into their homes over the weekend.
6. The free public concert in a dusty field between the RDP houses in Darling East, where all the performers presented 5 minutes from their acts. Inspirational stuff for people who otherwise wouldn’t have seen what had been happening in their town for the past few days.
6. The free public concert in a dusty field between the RDP houses in Darling East, where all the performers presented 5 minutes from their acts. Inspirational stuff for people who otherwise wouldn’t have seen what had been happening in their town for the past few days.
Taxi offloading visitors for a performance in Darling East
3 reasons not to love it
1. Back-crunching long waits for the taxis, particularly on the last day.
2. Vastly varying quality. Some shows we saw were brilliant, others averagely entertaining, and a couple really poor. On one of our routes we had 3 out of 3 great shows; on another just 1 out of 3.
3. Missing shows we really wanted to see, because the 'mystery' format doesn’t allow you to choose; you just have to take what the organisers allocate to you. For instance, we were bummed to have missed violinist Anele Mhlahlo and soprano Zanne Stapelberg.
Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za
1. Back-crunching long waits for the taxis, particularly on the last day.
2. Vastly varying quality. Some shows we saw were brilliant, others averagely entertaining, and a couple really poor. On one of our routes we had 3 out of 3 great shows; on another just 1 out of 3.
3. Missing shows we really wanted to see, because the 'mystery' format doesn’t allow you to choose; you just have to take what the organisers allocate to you. For instance, we were bummed to have missed violinist Anele Mhlahlo and soprano Zanne Stapelberg.
Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za
