Voorkamer Festival 2012 was as charming as ever. The Voorkamer Festival is one of the Cape Town’s best kept secrets although it is growing more and more popular every year. Inspired by the Dutch Voorkamer Fees, each year the residents of Darling open their homes to artists and audiences alike. This year was no different as the Darling hosted the 9th Voorkamer Festival.
The festival’s unique concept is what keeps driving the success of the event. There are 7 routes with 3 homes on each route. In each home there is a performance of some type, from magicians, musicians, dancers, authors, comedians, you never know WHAT you’re going to get!
This year we saw an Afrikaans cabaret duo which I personally feel would have been much better in drag! A jazz duo consisting of saxophonist Dan Shout and guitarist Gorm Helfjord and authoress Sindiwe Magona who shared the synopses of her works. Each home along the tour is different, usually consisting of one township home and two town homes. This adds so much to each performance because the audience’s curiosity about the home adds to the adventure of the performance. Each owner of the home introduces themselves as well as the act that follows in their home. Once the performance is finished, everyone jumps back onto a taxi and the audience is transported to the next home for the next performance.
After the festival there is a little “market” next to Tannie Evita’s Peron, where one can indulge in Darling beers and take aways. Pizza, lamb burgers, chips, cupcakes, wraps and even fried mushroom kebabs. I had a kebab this year and it was delicious!
Book WELL in advance for the Voorkamer festival as it only happens once a year and is extremely limited in space. It’s worth every penny (tickets from R200 up). Click here for the whole list of 2012 performers and to find out more! See pics from 2011 here!
[slideshow]
