The new Durbanville Winter Festival from 10 to 15 August is set to become a highlight on the annual calendar of cultural events in the Western Cape. The inaugural Winter Festival goes hand in hand with the 10th Durbanville High School Theatre Festival during the same week. Apart from local residents, visitors are also expected from Cape Town and surrounding areas as far as Stellenbosch and beyond.
Highlights of the Durbanville Winter Festival include a host of book launches by new and seasoned fiction writers (crime, romance and thriller) authors of various food publications, speakers about sensitive issues including gender equality in the modern relationship, as well as performing arts in the form of music performances. The Theatre Festival, hosted by the Durbanville High School, celebrates 10 years of theatre incorporating schools from Khyalitsha, others areas of the Western Cape and as far as Springbok. Schools bring their own theatre productions to be judged by a panel with prominent judges including Saartjie Botha from the Stellenbosch Word Festival. The Winter Festival will be hosted at a variety of venues, including restaurants, coffee shops and wine farms in and around Durbanville, with three or more events per day. Reading of children’s books by the writers and publishers themselves will be conducted at various schools in and around Durbanville, including Altydgedacht, a rural school on the doorstep of Durbanville where children don’t have access to proper books, let alone a library. Other readings include that of a drama professional who will reach out to read children’s books at underprivileged schools around Durbanville and also the Attie van Wyk Primary School on the outskirts of Durbanville. A number of underprivileged guests will be brought to Durbanville from surrounding areas to attend the concerts of Afrikaans singer Koos van der Merwe at the NG Kerk in Sonstraal, the concert of husband and wife Wynand and Chereé Strydom, as well as the book presentations. Bookings at Computicket www.computicket.com
