PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Bitou will be celebrating Heritage Day (September 24) in style this week with a festival set to include a bumper programme.
Municipal spokesman Howard Swartz said the Bitou Heritage Festival was an annual event created to celebrate the area’s diverse cultures and to bring the town together.
This year there will be no shortage of entertainment including performances by local artists. Swartz said there will also be several food stalls which would offer a large variety of food not only to satisfy the taste buds, but also to acknowledge the dishes associated with the different cultures.
He added that there would also be several arts and crafts stalls as well as entertainment for the elderly and the youngsters.
“To ensure everyone has the opportunity to join us in the Heritage Day celebrations, we will be providing busses to transport residents from outlying communities to the festival. These buses will go out to Kwanokuthula, Kranshoek, Kurland and other communities on the outskirts of the town.”
Swartz added that they had planned several competitions for the day and that prizes would be up for grabs including for the festino with best cultural attire as well as the potjiekos master.
Plett Tourism is supporting the event and chairman Peter Wallington said that the organisation was working on several projects over the next year or two to support the annual Heritage Day celebrations.
“Plett’s people come from richly diverse backgrounds and we have not in the past done enough to celebrate this, nor have we built enough in the way of cultural tourism to capitalise on this heritage. We have a number of work-in-progress projects at the moment, all collaborative in nature, and hopefully as they roll out they will strengthen the meaning and value of Heritage Day,” Wallington said.
The festival will take place at the Old Flea Market behind the main municipal building between 12:00 and 17:00.
The first Plett on a Platter food festival is also set to complement Heritage Day celebrations and would give foodies an opportunity to experience traditional cultural food.
The Plett on a Platter festival, which starts tomorrow, September 23 and runs until September 27, includes food markets, food lifestyle events, cooking demonstrations and classes and other food-related events.
Many of Plett’s restaurants are participating, including Arugula @ Goose Valley, Brokwa, Dinky Cakes, Down to Earth, Doubleshot, Emily Moon, Hola Café, Hunters Country House, Ice Palazzo, LM in Plett, Love Food Café at the Knysna Elephant Park, the Midweek Market at Old Nick, Moby Dick’s, Mugg ‘n Bean, Nguni’s Restaurant, Offthehook, Ouland Royale, Seafood @ The Plettenberg, Ski-Boat Club, Surf Café, The Beach House, The Island Diner, The Med, The Skaf’Tin Pizzeria & Take-Away, The Table, The Yard, Tsala and Zinzi’s.
For more information, e-mail platter@event-full.co.za
ARTICLE: YOLANDé STANDER, KNYSNA-PLETT HERALD CORRESPONDENT
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