WINTER IS festival season in the Eastern Cape, with the annual Kirkwood Wildlife Festival running parallel to the Grahamstown Festival. The start of the June 2003 School holidays will be celebrated with a new “big five” experience at the town of Kirkwood some 75 kilometres outside Port Elizabeth. “We expect up to 15 000 people to flock to Kirkwood from the Nelson Mandela Bay area and the rest of the region in order to experience our top five family attractions,” says Kirkwood Wildlife Festival chairman Johan Swart. The festival, which will run over the weekend of June 27 to June 29, attracted over 10 000 people in 2002. “Encouraged by this success, we are going even bigger in 2003,” says Mr Swart. “This year’s festival includes – the biggest auction of buffalo and other scarce game, the biggest music festival held in the Sunday’s River valley, the biggest wildlife shopping experience the biggest 4 x 4 championship and the biggest collection of snakes, spiders and birds of prey in one place. “That’s in addition to nearly 200 specialist wildlife food and craft stalls, exhibitions and fun activities such as a national 4 x 4 competition, archery, a dog show, a donkey cart competition, wine tasting, talks on conservation and game farming, a celebrity fashion breakfast and, of course, the rugby test on a big screen in the beer tent,” he says. Ten white rhino breeding bulls, as well as much sought-after breeding pairs of buffalo will be the main attractions at the auction, which starts at lunch-time on the Saturday. The buffalo have been captured in the Addo Elephant National Park, which now runs behind the pretty village of Kirkwood. “Another highlight will be the national Koedoedrolverspoegkompetisie. That translates as the ‘kudu dropping distance spitting competition.’ Frankly, it doesn’t sound particularly tasty in either language, but we are keen to support our national sports. Competitors, I am told, train by drinking lots of witblits (moonshine).” Top national and local artists who will be in Kirkwood over the weekend to present free concerts include Blackie Swart, The Campbells, Kurt Darren, Chris Brits, Pieter Weskusklong, and the Kowie River Jazz Band. They will appear on the Castle Lager Gig Rig – the biggest stage and sound system ever seen in the Sunday’s River valley. Other celebrities who will be in the valley over the weekend are Top Billing’s Michael Mol and former Miss South Africa’s Vanessa Carreira and Bernelee Daniell. They will be hosting the Exotan fashion show and breakfast on the Saturday morning. Exotan has donated more than R100 000 worth of exotic leathers to top local designers and students for the breakfast. Kirkwood and the Sunday’s River Valley are proving to be popular get-aways for the people of the Nelson Mandela Bay metro, according to Mr Swart. “We are less than 25 minutes from Uitenhage and 45 minutes drive from down-town Port Elizabeth. The festival gives the people of the metro the opportunity to experience the lifestyles and attractions of the Sunday’s River Valley. The views are every bit as beautiful as those over the Franschoek Valley in the Western Cape. And we offer so much more in terms of wildlife and things to do. A special train has been chartered to allow people to travel to the festival through spectacular passes and rolling bushveld in comfort on the Saturday. “The train proved very popular with families. For many of the children, it was their first opportunity to experience train travel,” he says. The Kirkwood Festival runs from the 27th to the 29th of June. Gates open at 11 on Friday, and nine on Saturday and Sunday. They close when the last person leaves. For more details, go to www.kirkwood.co.za