| SOUTH AFRICA, SOWETO,
GAUTENG, 5 SEPTEMBER 2011 - The organisers and visitors of
the 7th TOPS Soweto Wine Festival are hailing the 2011 festival
as the best ever in terms of attendance, operations, flow
and offerings. Part of the Arts Alive calendar, the 2011 TOPS
Soweto Wine Festival attracted a record 8550 people over the
3 evenings, which is 1002 more people than last year.
Marilyn Cooper, CEO of the
Cape Wine Academy, co-founder and organiser of the TOPS
Soweto Wine Festival says
"Apart from being the biggest, this has to be the most
enjoyable festival to date. It was absolutely packed on
Friday and Saturday but not uncomfortably so because of
the new and improved layout and flow of the event.
" We also increased and improved our food court where
people could sit in style and eat delicious meals so that
they could make a real night of it. It was just amazing
and we thank everybody involved for all their efforts, especially
our many wineries that came from the Western Cape to share
the wines they are all so passionate about.”
Cooper says that in total they had 77 wine exhibitors,
24 sponsors, and 186 media from South Africa, Denmark and
Botswana, and VIP guests such as Connie Chiume, Percy Vilakazi
and Peter se-Puma from Rhythm City cast, and Kaizer Chiefs
goalkeeper coach, Rainer Dinkelaker who was accompanied
by the Hamburg Ambassador Honorary representative, Wolfgang
Jakobs.
The VIP Lounge sponsors on Thursday, City Press
and Kaya FM, TOPS at Spar on Friday and
DStv on Saturday created the most glamorous lounge parties
for their clients and top management with new-comer singing
sensations Kruna and Mi Casa,
and mega-star Simphiwe Dana respectively
keeping everybody immensely entertained.
Adding to the vibrancy on the Saturday, DStv as part of
their DStv Subscriber Challenge competition
had their 14 winners ride pillion on Harley Davidson’s
into the festival.
The bikers of the Steelwings Harley Club and the winners
all came into the festival to enjoy a wine and food paring
experience hosted exclusively for them by Nederburg
winemaker, Tariro Masayiti. Masayiti’s Nederburg Taste
Sensations were held every hour and were full to capacity
on the Friday and Saturday.
Mnikelo Mangciphu, co-founder of TOPS Soweto Wine Festival
and owner of Morara Wine Emporium, which
is based in the heart of Soweto, says “It just gets
bigger and better every year but this is 12 months of hard
work. I believe the festival adds economic value to Soweto
every year as around 4000 people are employed from set up,
during and post festival. These range from hospitality managers
and students to food providers to security to bar staff
and construction people and many others.”
As part of its mandate Soweto Wine Festival
organisers use mostly local service providers and encourage
those involved in the festival to stay at the local hotels
for the 4 days. These people go shopping and buy food and
goods in Soweto.
Brand building Soweto also takes place 6 weeks prior to
the event, and this advertising is seen by millions of people
giving massive exposure to Soweto as a vibrant and exciting
tourist attraction full of wonderful hospitable people of
which 8550 people can attest to!
Cooper concludes, “We really are proud to have shared
our festival with our new headline sponsor TOPS
at Spar and we raise our glass to them. They add
such great value to the festival and to the people of Soweto
and surrounding areas.”
Ends
|
