2012 Macufe Festival

Its time to enjoy the African cultural festival
Source: www.safarinow.com

Whether you into sports events or into music events, I am pretty sure October is your favourite month since this is the month when the Macufe festival takes places. The Macufe festival is also known as the Mangaung African Cultural festival. This exciting event is presented by Bashomi baAfrica. The 2012 Macufe festival takes places between the 5th October and 14th October in Bloemfotein. This is an annual event and has been celebrated for more than 10 years, it was launched by Free State Provincial Government in 1997 as a celebration of arts and culture in the province. Macufe festival is important to to the Free State province as it attract more and more people each and every year. Its been atrracting an audience of over 140 000 people, making it one of the biggest cultural festival on the African continent. The price tickets range from event to event:

Different programmes taking place at the
Macufe Festival
Source: www.macufe.co.za

• Macufe Gospel R100
• Ons Konsert R150
• Macufe Comedy R150
• Macufe Indoor Jazz R200
• Macufe Divas Concert R200
• Macufe Main Music Festival R280

This festival programme includes a diverse range of events:

1. Stand-up comedy
2. Arts Exhibition
3. Poetry
4. A film Festival
5. Arts and crafts markets
6. Fashion market
7. Sporting events ( Macufe Cup and Macufe Golf Tournament

Laugh your lungs out at the stand-up comedy
Source: www.macufe.co.za

Angie Stone will be entertaining the fans
Soure: www.hypemagazine.co.za

 This event really means alot to the department of Arts and Culture in the Free State as it will attract more tourist in the province that will come from other provinces or countries to come and enjoy the Macufe festival.

Local and international artists will be performing:

• Thandiswa
• Bebe Winans
• Selaelo Selota
• Oliver Mtukudzi
• Johnny Gill
• Jimmy Dludlu
• Heinz Winkler
• Elvis Blue
• Lira

2012 Spring Fiesta Music Festival

Spring is here,time for outdoors events
Source: www.whatson.co.za

Winter is over its now time for spring. This is the time we enjoy being outdoors more frequently. Soul Candi once again decided to come up with the Spring Fiesta Music Festival. This event included over 50 of South Africa's hottest acts. This spectacular event took place on the 22nd of September 2012 at the Wild Waters Complex in Boksburg.The doors were opened from 11am until 1am. This event brought international music festival quality to South Africa's music fanatics. The 2012 Spring Fiesta Music Festival was organised by Soul Candi. Big Brother Productions and SAB's Castle Lite were some of the companies that co-branded with Soul Candi to make this event a success.
The tickets were sold a compu-ticket at:

• R120 (normal entery)
• R200 (VIP)
• R1000(VVIP)

Music lovers enjoying themselves
Source: www.zkhiphani.com

This successful 2012 Spring Fiesta Music Festal was attended by a whooping 14 000 people. The line up included:

• DJ Tira
• DJ Clock
• Shimza
• Oskido
• Mphoza
• The Layabouts
• Mi Casa
• Black Coffee

Through the 2012 Spring Fiesta Music Festival event Soul Candi, Big Brother Productions and SAB's Castle Lite have managed to strengthen their brands and image and also to increase awareness of the event.

Heritage Day Celebrations in South Africa

This year's theme
Picture: www.flickr.com

I am who I am because of my culture and all the beliefs that have been passed on from my great-grand parents to my parents and to me. Heritage is defined as something that is passed down from one generation to the next generation. Every year on the 24th of September, South Africa celebrates Heritage Day which is also known as National Braai Day. The aim of this day is to encourage people to celebrate their cultural heritage and diversity of their beliefs and traditions. It is also a day to celebrate the contribution of all South Africans to the building of South Africa. Way back in 2005, a media campaign was established to "re-brand" the holiday as National Braai Day, in recognition of the South African tasty tradition of holding informal backyard barbecues or braais. Furthermore, end of 2007 National Braai Day changed its name to Braai4Heritage and the initiative received the endorsement of South Africa's National Heritage Council (NHC). Most people celebrate this day by coming together as families and indulge in traditional home cooked meals.

Minenhle in traditional Zulu attire
Picture by Minenhle Ngcongo

I plan to celebrate this year's heritage day by dressing up in my traditional Zulu attire and cook for my family some traditional dishes:

• Umfino-Spinach
• Isijingi- Type og pumpkin
• Amaqina- A hoof of a cow
• Amadumbe- Potatoe like
• Tripe and dumplings

One of the radio station in South Africa Phalaborwa FM, it has organised an event which will be held on the 24th of September 2012 . This event will be held in Ga-Selwana Villiage at 10h00-15h00. The pupose of this event is:

1. To unite the community of Ba-Phalaborwa from different tribal houses and diverse cultures.
2. To embrace the common heritage we all share in a form of celebration.
3. To also educate the younger ones of their heritage, culture and tradition and that all these need to be respected.

There will be different activities which will be done during this event. Each tribal house will be having their activities to showcase. Activities will include traditional dance and singing.

Splendid 2012 Paralympics Closing Ceremony



Goodbye London 2012 Paralympic Games
Source: www.google.co.za

 Who said having a disability or being paralysed should keep you from taking part in anything that makes you happy? Well during the 2012 Paralympics Games also known as "Festival of the Flame" we witnessed people who had some kind of disability or who were paralysed do exceptionally good during this successful sports event. This was yet another terrific sports event, seeing people coming together to enjoy this spectacular sports event. People who were responsible for this event which was held on the 9th of September 2012 at the Olympic Stadium in London were the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), these people were responsible for overseeing the planning and development of the 2012 summer olympic and paralympic games. They were jointly established by the UK Government's Department for:

• culture
• media and
• sport

LOCOG worked closely with the publicly to fund the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) which is responsible for the planning and construction of new venues and infrastructure.


It was sure a Festival of the Flame at the Olympic Stadium
Source: www.google.co.za

 This year's event was themed around festivals and the four seasons and the audienced were entertained to live performances by:

• Coldplay
• Rihanna
• Jay-Z

During this event the paralympic flag was passed from Boris Johnson who is the Mayor of London to Eduardo Paes the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, which will be the host city of the 2016 summer paralympics. There was also a 17-piece orchestra of musicians with disabilities who performed during this closing ceremony. With such sports events and including disabled musicians perform in such events , this could spread international awareness for disabled sportsmen, sportswomen and musicisns.

Rihanna performing during the 2012 Paralympic
Closing Ceremony
Source: www.google.com

The British national anthem was sang by the talented blind and autistic singer Lissa Hermans. Having been part of an estimated number of 7.7 million people who watched the 2012 Paralympics closing ceremony I am sure we all enjoyed and were not disappointed with the outcome of this splendid Paralympic Closing Ceremony.

In Celebration of Women's Month

Album cover of Anthony's latest album
Picture: www.google.com

August is known as a women's month in South Africa.The reason for this is because on the 9th of August 1956 over 20 000 women of all races and ages from every corner of South Africa marched towards the Union Buildings in Pretoria. The march was against pass laws. This march was organised by the Federation of South Africa Women ( FSAW) and it was led by four brave women:

• Helen Joseph
• Rahima Moosa
• Sophie Williams
• Lillian Ngoyi

I believe that it was brave of these women to do such a thing, to fight for what they belived was right. Even though there are women who are still struggling out there, there are campaigns that do empower women: 

• Women's Campaign International ( Empowering Women to Transform their Communities)
• ONE ( Empower Women in the Fight Against Poverty and Preventable Disease) 

This year the well known event management company Afropluse entertainment decided to bring the RnB sensation Anthony Hamilton to celebrate women's month in South Africa. The organisers planned a four day concert in different cities in South Africa:

• Ellis Park Arena in Johannesburg on August 16 and 17
• Cape Town International Convention Centre on August 17



Mr Hamilton strikes a pose next to
 Mr Mandela's picure
Picture: www.google.com

• People's Park in Durban.

The organiser's Afropluse entertainment said " the two Johannesburg shows were sold out and there was huge demand for tickets".
Instead of stikes, marches or women abuse we need more concerts like this to celebrate the women we have in our country.

Goodbye 2012 Olympic Games

Mayor of Rio de Janeiro Eduardo Paes,waving the Olympic
Flag during the closing ceremony. Source: www.google.co.za

With an opening at the end ther must be a closing, this closing ceremony was more of a a party. This past Sunday ( 12 August 2012) I got the opportunity to watch the London 2012 Olympic Games Closing Ceremony which started at 21:00pm. This event was held at the Olympic Stadium. I decided to watch this closing ceremony so that Icould see if it would be a success like the opening ceremony which was a success. As I expected I must say it was a success because I could tell that the organisors did put alot of effort in organising this closing ceremony. With any event or ceremony that becomes a disaster it will receive bad publicity for the company or an organisation. This sport event featured more than

The view of the Olympic Cauldron being extinguished
Source: www.google.co.za

• 4100 performers
• 3500 adult volunteers
• 380 schoolchildren from six east London Host Boroughs

 To signify the end of the 2012 Olympic Games, the Olympic cauldron was extinguished at one minute past midnight. this ceremony commenced with fireworks. The guests of honour included:

• IOC President Jacques Rogge and
• Prince Harry

It would have not been a successful closing ceremony if it was not for these artists who performed:

• Emeli Sande
• Jessi J
• Tinie Tempah
• Taio Cruz and the
• Spice Girls just to name a few



The Spice Girls entertaining the audience
Source: www.google.co.za

Will the next Olympic Games in 2016 which will be held in Rio de Janeiro be this successfull? I guess we will just have to wait and see in 2016.

Blissful Ukhozi Fm Gospel Music Festival

Ukhozi FM oluhamba phambili
Picture: www.google.co.za

Finally the 4th of August 2012 arrived, the day i had been patiently waiting for. This was the day when i witnessed the Ukhozi FM Gospel Music Festival which was held at Coca-Cola Park, formaly known as Ellis Park staduim in Johannesburg ( South Africa). The gates opened at 08:00am but the festival started at 10:00am. The aim of this gospel music festival was so that the proceeds would be taken to the Arnie William's Foundation for Abused Women and Children, who do a sterling job in catering for the needs of the abused. This really shows that Ukhozi FM cares. This event was also a celebratory party for Ukhozi FM, which has become one of the biggest radio station in the world seeing that they have 7,2 million listeners.


Gospel music lovers feeling the presence at Ellis Park
Picture: www.google.co.za

 This blissful event was organised by Ukhozi FM in partnership with EMI LIVE (recording company) and Sipho Makhabane of BIG FISH's Productions. The sponsors for this event were:

• Vodacom
• SABC 1

This event was a success because it was well organised, planned in time, well advertised, flyers were made, different artists who performed on the stage were interviewed on Ukhozi FM prior the event just to let the listeners know what to expect on the Ukhozi FM Gospel Music Festival and lastly this event was advertised on the official Ukhozi FM FACEBOOK page
Some of the gospel artists who graced the stage where:

• Rebecca Malope
• Hlegiwe Mhlaba
• Sechaba
• S'fiso Ncwane
• Lundi Tyamara




Well known gospel artist Winnie Mashaba
Picture: www.google.com





Lundi Tyamara entertaining the fans
Picture: www.google.co.za