FIRM FOUNDATIONS have been laid for the Kirkwood Wildlife Festival to become an annual event, says Kirkwood Festival Committee chairperson Johan Swart. The first festival was held over the weekend of June 28 to June 30, attracted over 10 000 people from the Sunday’s River Valley, Port Elizabeth and the rest of the country. One of the main objectives of the festival was to establish Kirkwood as the centre of the wildlife industry in the Eastern Cape. There was a strong emphasis on eco-tourism, hunting, bush adventures, culture, leather goods and crafts – all the ingredients needed to establish the area as a year-round tourism destination, says Swart. There were over 100 stall holders selling delicacies, biltong, arts, crafts, leather goods and clothing from the Sunday’s River Valley. All seats were filled for a Saturday morning breakfast and fashion show. Bidders travelled from as far as Namibia and the United States for the first Kirkwood Wildlife auction, which included kudu, eland and buffalo bulls from the Addo Elephant National Park, black and blue wildebeest, mountain zebras, inyala and reedbuck. A record price of R27 000 was paid for an Eland bull, while the R110 000 paid for a buffalo bull with a 47 inch horn-span is one of the highest prices achieved at a game auction in South Africa. Total revenues from the auction were R1,7-million. There was positive feedback from both the buyers and sellers, and the auction is expected to held annually with the Wildlife Festival, according to Swart. Next year both the festival and the auction will be bigger and better, he adds.