Limpopo Marula Festival Lives Up To Expectation!

All roads in Limpopo this weekend led to the immaculate town of Phalaborwa, the permanent host town for the Limpopo Marula Festival.  The town of Phalaborwa is well known for scooping the cleanest town competition in South Africa.

The small town of Phalaborwa, in the Mopani District of Limpopo Province, was abuzz with a plethora of activities during the past two weeks, living up-to its name of “being better than the South” and proving that Limpopo as Province is indeed capable of hosting events of this magnitude.

The festival has both the Heritage and Economic elements, which make this one of the most hence co-hosting by the Limpopo Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (LEDET), Department Of Sports, Arts and Culture and Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality. 

There are also traditional festivities and activities which always precede the main event which, include,  Ku Luma Nguva (First Fruit) by local Chiefs and traditional leaders.  This also includes the ritual ceremony which is performed by traditional healers (inyanga’s) to seek blessings from the ancestors to successfully host and celebrate the festival of the first fruit.

Honorable MEC for the Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism  Mr. Pitsi Moloto launched the festival to media at the Kruger National Park on the 28th January 2010 to usher in the activities and festivities of Marula Festival that started on 20/02/2010.

The first leg of the Festival  included the highly contested Marula  4X4 Challenge on the 20th February that coincided with the World Tourist Guide Day Celebrations, which was celebrated in the Kruger National Park. Tourist Guides and members of the media were taken on a tour of the town and the surroundings,  ending up in Hoedspruit.

The second leg included the Bulletjies rugby (youth rugby), mini soccer, cuisine ala Marula food competition, indigenous games, fun fair and culminating into the ever popular open air concert. The open air concert line-up included the likes of Selota, Rhythmic Elements, Freshly Ground, Elvovo Derango , Teargas, Thomas Chauke and Tira, who closed the show off with some banging Durban mixes.

The festival was a huge success and tickets were sold out with people from all corners of South Africa as well as SADC countries such as Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Swaziland.