Up the Creek is one of South Africa’s biggest and most eagerly anticipated music festivals. Forget pencilling these dates in; circle your calendar with a great big black permanent marker. From 3 – 5 February 2012, we’ll expect to see you slathered in sun screen, partying up a storm on the banks of the Breede River near Swellendam.

This is your chance to shake off the shock of going back to work after an indulgent holiday and revive your system with good music, good company and good fun.

The organisers have outdone themselves (again) by putting together a phenomenal line up that includes Karen Zoid, Taxi Violence, aKing, Kongos, Black Cat Bones, Fox Comet, Blues Broers, Hot Water, City Bowl Mizers, Great Apes, Wrestlerish, Peachy Keen and Holiday Murray.

THIS YEAR’S Cape Town Bike Festival (CTBF) has been cancelled due to lack of sponsorship and ticket support for the top level event.

What was to have been a major event on Cape Town’s calendar and Africa’s first and largest bike and lifestyle festival, the CTBF was to feature international artists, riders, expos and celebrities at the Cape Town Stadium from 16-18 December.

“Two weeks ago the company was still hopeful we would be able sell enough tickets to make the event happen on advice that an event like the CTBF is a walk-in event and that significant ticket sales would only start happening closer to the event,” says CTBF CEO De Wet Du Plessis.

‘From space, the planet is blue.

From space the planet is the territory not of humans but of the whale…’

So starts ‘Whale Nation’, Heathcote Williams’ great elegy to one of our planet’s most revered and remarkable animals; the whale.

From the 9th to the 31st December this beautiful piece of writing will be brought vibrantly to life by acclaimed performer David Muller (Imagining Einstein and Tommy) at The Amphitheatre in Hout Bay’s Mainstream Centre.

Muller performs ‘Whale Nation’ with a deep empathy for the whale. He celebrates with us the joy, the challenges and the pain that whales encounter as they cruise the oceans of the planet. He reveals to us their secret lives and in doing so reminds us to question our place in the great chain of existence. It is not our planet, we realise, but theirs.

The concerts in red do not form part of the Old Mutual Sumer Sunset Concerts series

Media Release:

“…at its best the city offers a relaxed blend of African ethnicity and culture – and nowhere does that harmony look, or sound, better than at the summer concerts at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden”. – Time Magazine, 19 November 2007

There’s a spring in our step and summer is truly on its way as we relish the thought of long hot days enjoying the special experiences that make Cape Town so unique.

For Capetonians and visitors the internationally renowned Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is the place to visit, not only for its beauty but for the hugely popular Old Mutual Summer Sunset Concerts that draw audiences from far and wide.

If you like an eclectic mix of Afro/Latin/rock then you need to check out The Curious Incident, a new(ish) four-piece band with roots in Cape Town and London. The Curious Incident has gained quite a cult following in the UK, where it has been performing for a couple of years, but this is the first time that the group will be in South Africa.

In their own words, the band describes themselves as:

‘Shaka Zulu Rock duelling with Conquistador Rock while Motown Soul provokes them (but in a gentlemanly fashion).’

‘… spreading like swine flu.’

 ‘… the musical expression of that feeling you get in your stomach in a descending lift.’

And,