Are these music festivals on your bucket list?

Cape Town International Jazz Festival

Where: Cape Town

Website: Cape Town International Jazz Festival (https://www.capetownjazzfest.com/)

The Cape Town International Jazz Festival is a two-day festival featuring some 40 international and African acts performing on five stages to an audience of 15 000. It also features photographic and art exhibitions.

Klein Karoo Nationale Kunstefees

Where: Oudtshoorn

Website: Klein Karoo Nationale Kunstefees (https://kknk.co.za/)

The Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees in Oudtshoorn features well-known and young up-and-coming artists in dance and theatre. It started off as an Afrikaans alternative to the mainly English National Arts Festival. KKNK has 200 different shows on three different stages.

AfrikaBurn

Where: The Karoo

Website: AfrikaBurn (https://afrikaburn.com/)

Afrika Burn is based on The Burning Man festival which grew out of a loose grouping of individuals and organisations who questioned, and continue to question mainstream, highly commercialised society and what it does to the notion and workings of community. In a nutshell, it’s about radical self-expression.

Splashy Fen

Where: Underberg, KwaZulu-Natal

Website: Splashy Fen (https://www.splashyfen.co.za/)

Every year the Splashy Fen music festival attracts thousands of people to a farm near Underberg in KwaZulu-Natal for a feast of mainstream and alternative rock and pop. It offers plenty of facilities, but there are great bed-and-breakfasts in nearby towns for those who believe music festivals can be enjoyed without mud.

Oppikoppi Music Festival

Where: Northam, North West

Website: Oppikoppi (https://www.oppikoppi.co.za/)

Held on the bushveld farm of Oppikoppi (“op die koppie” in Afrikaans, or “on the hill”), this festival offers three permanent thatched stages, a smaller comedy stage and a stage for more chilled music at the top of the koppie. Oppikoppi has helped establish many South African musicians’ careers, but it’s not for the faint- hearted. This is real bushveld: hot and dry, and everywhere red dust and thorn trees. Expect to shower a lot when you get home.

Woodstock Music Festival

Where: Hartbeeshoek, North West

Website: Woodstock Music Festival

Woodstock, first held in 1999, is the largest youth-oriented music and lifestyle festival in South Africa. In addition to mainstream music, the festival offers a market of crafters and alternative lifestyle products over four days. It is held at Hartbeeshoek Holiday resort near Hartbeespoort Dam in North West.

Hermanus Whale Festival

Where: Hermanus, Western Cape

Website: Hermanus Whale Festival (https://www.satourismonline.com/)

Every year, southern right whales travel thousands of miles to the Cape south coast to mate and calve in the bays. Join the villagers of Hermanus for an entertainment- packed festival, in the town with the best land-based whale watching in the world.

Rocking the Daisies Music and Lifestyle Festival

Where: Cloof Wine Estate, Darling, Cape West Coast

Website: Rocking the Daisies Music and Lifestyle Festival (https://rockingthedaisiessouthafrica.pr.co/)

The Rocking the Daisies Music and Lifestyle Festival features top South African bands performing a wide variety of music, as well as comedy, burlesque dancing, acoustic jams, and giant African puppeteering. The Food Village looks after the stomach and the Traders Market offers exciting goodies. Other attractions include swimming, wine tasting, the Daisy Den and Art Field, and activities for the kids.

Ficksburg Cherry Festival

Where: Ficksburg, Free State

Website: Ficksburg Cherry Festival (https://www.cherryfestival.co.za/)

One of the oldest festivals in South Africa – first held in 1969 – the Ficksburg Cherry Festival now attracts around 20 000 visitors to this small eastern Free State town every November. The scenery is magnificent, and the festival offers cherry and asparagus tastings, tours, picnics, music, and the Miss Cherry Blossom and Miss Cherry Pip competitions.

White Mountain Festival

Where: Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal

Website: White Mountain Festival (https://www.c-weed.com/wmf/)

The White Mountain Folk Festival in the Central Drakensberg mountain range offers great music in an awesome setting for three days in September. Featuring acoustic performances by some of the South Africa’s top folk musicians, it is held at White Mountain Lodge in the foothills of the Giant’s Castle Nature Reserve. Camping in a beautiful site at the edge of a dam is free, with brand new hot shower units at the ready, plus lots of “executive” toilets. There’s also a variety of food stalls, and a beer market offering naturally brewed local ales and lagers.