Freshly Ground

On Sunday we decided to go to Kirstenbosch for the Summer Sunset Concert. I used to go to these all the time, but haven't been going very much at all for the past few years. In fact I have probably gone to one a year - at most.

We last saw 'The Muse' there, and tired to see arno Carstens, but when we arrived late we couldn't even get near the venue, never mind find parking...
'Freshly Ground' is a pretty popular local band, so we knew it would be quite crowded. The show was scheduled to start at 17:30, so we decided to arrive at 15:30 to give us plenty of time to find a good spot, meet our friends, and settle in etc. Well, we battled to find parking at 15:15 already and had to walk quite far to get the the gate, where we had to queue to get in. The concert area was already full when we arrived, but we managed to find a big enough spot near the back. The crowds just kept streaming in, until eventually the temporary fences were removed and I think the entire gardens were filled. There were ppl up trees, up paths, behind bushes, just everywhere. At one point there was an announcement that there were 8000 people there - and I think more arrived afterwards. So it is possible that there were 10000 people in total in the end, especially since kids are free so weren't counted at the gate, and there were LOTS of them!

The concert was nice, and the crowd was feastive. We enjoyed a lovely picnic, and because we were all basically on top of our neighbours we all ended up pretty much sharing. The best things I ate were a butternut, feta and caremelised onion spread I had bought and a chees and fig preserve combination I was handed by the fun and funny girls behind us. (at one point one girl spilled wine in her crotch and was trying to wipe it up, the situation got very debaucherous after I commented that I thought she had done enough rubbing for polite company, and was really just using the wine as an excuse etc) ;)

I am normally not a fan of big crowds and half our friends didn,t find us, or didn't even manage to get in in the end, but we decided to just kick back and relax and make the most of it, and it was actually good fun... The concert was ok, I missed a lot of it wheil taking Qunn for a toilet break ... the queue was long, but festive and the mens loos were overrun by women too. Brave and confident men managed to use the urinals in full view of hordes of women ;)

I think I'll avoid the very popular concerts from now on, but will definately make an effort to go more often again... You can't really beat lounging around with a scrumptious picnic and glass of wine in one of the most beautiful setting on earth, with good friends and good music!