The National Arts Festival (NAF) is an annual competition of emerging arts in Grahamstown, South Africa. It is the biggest arts competition at the African continent and one in all the biggest appearing arts fairs withinside the global way of means of vacationer numbers.

The competition runs for eleven days, from the ultimate week of June to the primary week of July each year. It takes the vicinity withinside the small college town of Grahamstown, withinside the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The NAF contains a Main programme and a Fringe competition, each administered by means of the National Arts Festival Office, a non-income Section 21 Company. The Festival programme consists of appearing arts (theater, dance, stand-up comedy and stay music), visible artwork exhibitions, films, talks and workshops, a huge meal and craft honest and ancient excursions of the town. The NAF runs a kid's arts competition over the identical duration and some of different fairs take place in Makhanda over the duration of the NAF, consisting of the National Youth Jazz Festival.

Performances take place throughout the town in about 60 venues (consisting of theaters, churches, schools) in addition to numerous out of doors places for the road performances. The Festival draws great numbers of neighborhood and global traffic and is one in all the most important participants to the economic system of the region.

Time: June, July

Location: Grahamstown

The Cape Town International Jazz Festival is a spotlight on each jazz enthusiast’s calendar. It takes place on the ultimate weekend of March every year at the Cape Town International Convention Center. Here you will discover an eclectic blend of nearby and worldwide jazz, that's why they name it 'Africa’s Grandest Gathering', because the Mother City places on a display of sexy, soulful jazz and entertains in style.

The first pageant passed off in 2000 and, over the years, attendance figures have grown from 14 000 to over 30 000. The occasion includes stay performances from 40-plus worldwide and African artists over 2 days throughout five levels and, for individuals who love music, it’s a pageant of note, with musicians gambling to complete houses.

Time: March

Location: Cape Town

One of the most famous festivals in the field in South Africa is the Oppikoppi Bushveld Music Festival. While it began out as a rock tune event, it has slowly graduated to a whole lot of genres being performed over multiple days.

Oppikoppi became a tune pageant held withinside the Limpopo Province of South Africa, close to the mining metropolis of Northam. The pageant began out focusing totally on rock tunes, however progressively delivered greater genres and now performs host to a whole blended bag of genres. Anything from jazz, global tune, residence tune, acoustic, comedy and all else in among may be heard on one of the more than one stages. Each yr withinside the first week of August - besides for 2017, while the pageant became held in October - lots of human beings used to flock to the farm to camp out withinside the bush and experience the tune for numerous days. The pageant capabilities commonly South African bands, even though global acts are covered withinside the line-up.

Time: August

Location: Limpopo Province

Knysna’s Oyster Festival has been a roaring fulfillment in view that 1983, while it become nonetheless known as the Knysna Winter Festival. Since then, it has grown and advanced right into a colorful competition of accurate food, difficult sports, and lots of family-pleasant fun. The enterprise of this occasion has currently been taken over by means of locals, this means that new and clean matters are in store, even for the ones which have been heading to Knysna for the Oyster Festival for plenty of years.

The competition unfolds throughout 10 days of winter, which incorporates weekends. The programme is as numerous because the humans coming to revel in it. It consists of walks by the indigenous forests of the Garden Route, swims withinside the well-known Knysna Lagoon, stay music, and golfing on the award-triumphing estates. More than this, there may be homicide thriller evenings, stay-comedy shows, and lots of possibilities to sample a few outstanding delicacies and South African wines.

Time: June, July

Location: Knysna

Established in 1990, Splashy Fen is South Africa's longest-jogging track festival, which each Easter draws heaps of humans to a farm close to Underberg, KwaZulu-Natal for a completely unique outside track experience. Also gifts are arts and crafts stalls, foods and drinks outlets, crèche and kid's leisure programme, in addition to numerous tenting and lodging options. This is one of the most famous festivals in South Africa that you should not miss.

From its humble beginnings in 1990, Splashy Fen has advanced to turn out to be certainly considered one among South Africa’s surest track fairs. Thousands of humans make the once a year pilgrimage to Underberg in KwaZulu-Natal for what's appeared via way of means of many because the continent's solution to Glastonbury. Today, attendance has grown to the factor in which Splashy Fen now draws crowds upwards of 10,000 humans from all corners of the USA and abroad.

Of all of the occasions of the listing of track fairs in South Africa, Splashy Fen Music Festival is the longest one. With artists appearing at the stage, the occasion additionally consists of some of different such things as craft stalls, meals carts, and different occasions for kids too.

Time: April

Location: Underberg

The Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (Afrikaans for Little Karoo National Arts Festival and commonly abbreviated to KKNK) is an Afrikaans language arts pageant that takes region every year withinside the South African metropolis of Oudtshoorn. The pageant consists of each of the visible and the appearing arts and is formally diagnosed by the South African authorities as a countrywide arts pageant. Based on the wide variety of visitors, it's also the biggest South African arts pageant.

The first pageant happened in 1994 and turned into the concept of a businessman from Oudtshoorn, Nic Barrow, and a former Public Relations Manager for the South African publishing organization Naspers, Andrew Marais. Annually the KKNK draws extra than 1,000 artists appearing or displaying in extra than two hundred productions and exhibitions over 8 days; commonly on the stop of March or the start of April. The pageant has come to play a crucial position in Afrikaans degree productions - new productions are commonly first staged on the KKNK and are then done all through the relaxation of South Africa all through the relaxation of the year.

Economically the KKNK has been a source of boom for the metropolis and its surrounding region, with many personal people and establishments benefitting from renting out accommodation, halls and grounds all through the pageant.

Time: March

Location: Oudtshoorn

The Cape Town Minstrel Carnival, in any other case called the Tweede Nuwe Jaar (Second New Year), is a colorful parade in Cape Town that is as wealthy in records as its miles in lifestyle and extravagance. It’s one of the most famous festivals with all locals in Cape Town and is taken into consideration as a must-see for all visitors.

On the second of January musicians, performers and households from all walks of lifestyles take to the streets in colorful uniforms to sing, dance, and play tunes for the crowds as they parade the streets. This parade is a cultural lifestyle that dates returned to the early years of colonisation and slavery withinside the Cape. Slaves had been introduced to Cape Town from all corners of the globe, from throughout Africa, India, Indonesia and the Middle East.

Many of those slaves couldn't communicate the identical language and had little in not unusualplace except for his or her very own slavery. Despite their slavery, New Years became a time of the year in which slaves had been allowed the liberty to rejoice among the colonists. It became a time for lots festivities and happiness, and with the aid of using mingling with the colonists and overseas buyers from across the world, slaves might create their very own dances, songs, tune or even languages, which helped to shape the Afrikaans language we recognise today.

Time: January

Location: Cape Town

The annual Cherry Festival has turned out to be a great deal, a great deal greater than a harvest occasion. It attracts site visitors from throughout South Africa and the world, and is as great a competition of nearby culture, music, arts, crafts, culinary delights, sports activities and own circle of relatives amusing as its miles approximately cherries. The Festival is a long time traveler attraction, featuring frequently in National and International journey press.

The Cherry Jazz occasion on the Ficksburg Showgrounds brings collectively South Africa’s pinnacle jazz artists; excursions are carried out to nearby sights and the cherry farms and plenty plenty greater. There are sports activities withinside the geographical region round Ficksburg for the suit and active, cherry pip spitting contests for the silly, and an entire lot of eating, ingesting and wallowing in cherries for everyone.

Time: November

Loation: Ficksburg

The annual Hermanus Whale Festival is a party of the go back of the southern proper whales to the coastal waters of Southern Africa. It is a tribute to the legacy left to the metropolis through Wendy the Whale whose tale is ready man's cap potential to stay in concord with nature in addition to people's cap potential to return back collectively as groups valuing the environment. All occasions and sports at some stage in the whale competition are targeted to create attention on a way to shield the whales and all our marine flora and fauna who proportion our coastal waters. The competition takes place on the end of September that's the height of whale interest withinside the region.

Every year, southern proper whales migrate from their icy feeding grounds off Antarctica to hotter climates, accomplishing the South African Whale Coast in June and could live until early December. These coastal waters will then group with the massive mammals, mating, calving, and rearing their young – and giving whale-watchers extraordinary presentations of uncooked energy and fashionable water acrobatics fantastically near shore.

Over a length of three days, this fishing village will over again burst into lifestyles whilst heaps of traffic descend upon the metropolis to enroll in withinside the festivities of this famous event. Accommodation institutions open their doors, eating places dish up mouth-watering food and the citizens of Hermanus open their hearts in a warm welcome to traffic.

Time: September

Location: Hermanus

The list of the most famous festivals in South Africa cannot be complete without the Prince Albert Olive Festival. Out of all of the culinary fairs celebrated in South Africa, Prince Albert Olive Festival is a color extra special. Paying homage to the remarkable produce of the valleys of Swartberg Mountain Range.

The Prince Albert Town and Olive Festival is an annual occasion held withinside the Western Cape at Riebeek Kasteel. The competition takes location over a weekend and is packed with amusement for the entire own circle of relatives. You can go to the Olive Farms and revel in the fruit, see the olive presses and the way the olives are converted into the scrumptious very last products. Taste the natural olive paste on a few home made bread immediately out of the oven. The entire own circle of relatives can revel in a tractor trip and research extra approximately the tradition and records of the area. There is a lot to look and do inclusive of a 1/2 of marathon and a 10km run.

Time: April, May

Location: Karoo town