VISI’S guide to the Joburg City Festival

WORDS Nechama Brodie

Falling in between Joburg’s Joy of Jazz and Arts Alive, the new Joburg City Festival runs until Saturday 31 August and promises an almost bewildering hybrid of experiences from champagne and cupcakes to massages, walking tours, inner-city cycle routes, open-air movie screenings, live music and a whole lot of food. Here’s the VISI lowdown on what to do and where to be seen.

Focusing on relatively low-key events and activities – such as a picnic in Soweto, a food and craft beer pairing, stand-up comedy, a coffee training workshop – the programme cleverly exploits Joburg’s existing venues and happenings. These are things you could (probably) do (almost) any day of the week, if you knew where to look and who to contact. What makes it festive is that we’re all invited…

Two legs, good

Walking tours are the best way to connect with the geographical anchors that hold together the diverse swatches of Jo’burg’s history and communities.

Past Experiences has been a champion of “two legs good, four wheels bad” for some years now. This week you can pick up on some newer offerings including a Braamfontein pub crawl (Thursday 29 August), a Soweto picnic and photo walk (the morning of Saturday 31 August), and a savoury afternoon in Spicy Fordsburg (Saturday 31 August) – which ends with a delicious dinner in the area.

Joburg Places is offering a premium food-wine experience and walking tour on Wednesday 28 August (the walk starts at 5pm; space is very limited – bookings are essential) while their Gandhi to Mandela tour (at noon on Tuesday 27 August and Friday 30 August) marks a different sort of pilgrimage: tracing an urban narrative that yielded two of the most remarkable leaders of the past century –although neither Gandhi nor Mandela were born in Johannesburg, the city is where many of their ideas and ideals were shaped and galvanised.

You don’t get any brownie points (these days) for sticking to the gentrified spots of the inner city and if you’re feeling braver than Braamies or Maboneng or Newtown (and you missed last year’s Run Jozi) you can try the Main Street Walks excursion into Hillbrow at 10am on Saturday 31 August.

Jozi Triangle is also offering daily city walks – at noon, and before sunset (starting at 5pm).

Click cliques: Many of the walking tour routes are a photographer’s (or instagrammer’s) delight. Compare your snaps with route regulars by following or adding the #igersjozi tag (be warned: competition is stiff; only post your best stuff!). 

Gold rush 

An early starter in the race to revitalise the inner city, the “mining district” seemed to falter after the initial rush of the noughties but now seems set on giving Braamfontein, Maboneng and Newtown a run for their money. The Reef Hotel is anteing up with offerings from breakfast (or, at least, brunch) until long after the sun has gone down. Try the in-house Goldmine Café for pap chow (bunny chow in a pap casing) and shisa nyama (Thursday 29 August and Friday 30 August, from 11:30am until late), or head to the Elevate Rooftop Bar for sundowners (Tuesday 27 August, from 5pm).

There are several pedestrian-friendly zones in the mining district – named not so much for any long abandoned shafts or stopes (although those are there, too, if you know where to look), but more for the mining houses headquartered there: there’s the imposing monolith of the Chamber of Mines Building; the art deco friezes outside BHP Billiton; and the once-golden Maluti sandstone decorating the front of the 1936 Anglo American building at 44 Main (opposite the entrance you can also find the relocated, much-loved Impala Stampede sculpture by Herman Wald).

Pin this 

While the suburbs have been overrun with scrapbooking stores, the city’s Fashion District keeps it old school: 109 Pritchard Street is where you can find the largest range of haberdashery (isn’t that a great word?), ribbons, buttons, zips, all that jazz… and, for our money, the best selection of original DaGama Shweshwe fabric in town.

Across the road from the wholesalers is the Fashion Kapitol (130 Pritchard Street), which is hosting dress-up/show-off fashion events every weekday at 1pm during the festival. On Saturday 31 August there will be a full-day programme including dancers, a fashion show, jazz and poetry, starting from 11am.  

Cherry pick 

• Barefoot folk beauty Shotgun Tori will be playing at POPArt in Maboneng on Saturday 31 August at 8pm, as an opener for Kyla Davis’ “The Spinster”.
• Doubleshot Coffee and Tea in Braamfontein is hosting a High Tea every day of the festival, between 3pm and 5pm. If their cinnamon twists are anything to go by, this should be good.
• Start or end your Joburg City itinerary with some good reading and discussion: the Mail & Guardian Literary Festival starts on Friday 30 August, at the Market Theatre in Newtown. Booking is recommended.
• David Krut Projects will present its second Live Create Demonstrate – a mix of artist (and foodie) walkabouts, demonstrations, workshops and making opportunities – at Arts on Main, from 11am to 4pm on Saturday 31 August. This is a chance to watch Master Printer Jillian Ross at work – as she prints pieces by artists including William Kentridge and Diane Victor – while she explains the printing methods and techniques employed.  

View the full festival programme at joburgcity.net/joburg-city-festival.

Read more VISI articles by Nechama Brodie here.