Perfect weather, spiders, lizards, owls and snakes that visitors could touch along with a star-studded line-up of live music in the evenings attracted record numbers of people from all over the Eastern Cape and the rest of South Africa to the tenth annual Absa Kirkwood Wildsfees.
According to festival director Jenni Honsbein, over 42 000 people visited the festival between Friday, July 1 and Sunday, July 3 – a far cry from the four thousand who attended the first festival in 2001.
In 2010, the festival attracted 38 000 visitors.
The weather in Kirkwood stayed dry, despite heavy rain storms along the coast.
New attendance records were set every day, with nearly a third more visitors on the Friday.
“For the first time, we opened the gates at nine on the Friday morning, making it a full three-day festival,” says Honsbein. The main attraction for music lovers was the Saturday night line-up, which saw the world’s top rock band, the Parlotones, performing at a big concert in the Eastern Cape for the first time since the band went global. They had just returned from New York. An estimated 22 000 fans braved the Kirkwood cold to listen to the band.
“The turnout is proof that the Eastern Cape will support top acts and will even travel to see them,” says Honsbein. Many had to travel home to Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Despatch as all the accommodation in Kirkwood, Addo and surrounds had been booked out months in advance.
Nearly 100 buyers from all over Southern Africa also attended the annual Kirkwood Wildlife Festival Auction, where the main drawcard is disease-free buffalo from the Addo Elephant National Park.
A record number of 46 buffalo was put on auction, with the highest price of R410 000 being paid for a buffalo cow and female calf. Due to a moratorium on the sale of rhino, the total value of the animals auctioned was down to R9,9-million, compared to the R11,1-million in 2010, according to auction convener Johan Swart. He says sellers were generally happy with the prices paid given the continuing impact of the recession on the industry.
Alan Straton
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How many road accidents from drunk drivers returning from the fees?