Grahamstown

Grahamstown is a small town situated in the centre of South Africa’s Frontier Country, once a place of much conflict between the Khoisan, the Xhosa, the Afrikaners and the British, it is now a place great ecological diversity, with thousands of hectares dedicated to the conservation of the areas plant, animal and bird life. The Thomas Baines Nature Reserve and the Great Fish River Reserve are two places where this conservation can be seen in action. Another great way to get in touch with Grahamstown’s natural beauty is to hike the Oldenburgia trail, a two day hike which circles the town, starting and ending in the city.

The town of Grahamstown is cluttered with churches from many different religious groups, giving rise to the name ‘City of Saints’. Well that is one of the theories behind the name. A slightly more obscure reason stems from the time when Grahamstown was still being built. The Royal Engineers working in the city were in need of more tools so they sent a message down to Cape Town requesting a vice be sent to them. The reply from Cape Town said, “Buy vice locally”. The engineers reply to this was, “No vice in Grahamstown”.

Grahamstown is also home to one of the country’s top universities, one of the reasons the town is often thought of as a student town, another reason being that there are more than 100 schools in the area. The university itself is known for journalism courses and the production of many young creative minds, which can be seen annually in the National Arts Festival.

National Arts Festival, Grahamstown

The National Arts Festival, often referred to as Grahamstown Festival, is the second largest art festival in the world, the only one bigger being Edinburgh Festival in Scotland. Every art form you can think of is represented at the festival, dance poetry, theatre, comedy, opera, fine art, jazz and so the list goes on. The Grahamstown Festival is an annual event that takes place in the months of June and July. It is a great place to see young talent in action and is often the best place to see the premieres of new shows before they start touring the rest of South Africa.