The 2014 Joburg City Festival: My Photo Highlights

The Absa Joburg City Festival was this past weekend. There were many cool events happening simultaneously all over the city and I didn’t manage to see and do everything that I wanted to do. But I did make it to quite a few things and I had a blast.

Here’s a photo round-up of my Joburg City weekend.

Graffiti artwork on display at the Absa Gallery.

I started on Thursday evening at the Absa Art Gallery downtown. Absa Bank is the title sponsor of the Joburg City Festival and they kicked off the weekend with a huge art exhibition, which included stunning photography, paintings, and graffiti artwork. I’m partial to these graffiti-painted model train cars, as my boyfriend painted them. The guy in the trippy shirt and Rasta hat seemed to like them too. The exhibition is up for a month – go check it out.

After the Absa exhibition I headed to the Sheds @1Fox.

Courtyard at the Sheds @1Fox.

The Sheds officially opened on Thursday and they are fantastic. The space looks amazing and I can’t believe how many delectable food stalls there are to choose from. There are also craft shops, three bars with an extensive wine and beer menu, a huge Happy.me bubble tea stand, and a large performance venue.

Another look from the Sheds courtyard.

Inside the Sheds.

The Sheds’ Good Luck Bar.

Flowers.

The greatest thing at the Sheds, in my opinion, is the Baha Taco stand. I’m not going to write too much about Baha Taco here because I need to do a dedicated post. But let me say right now that Baha Taco has become my favorite Mexican joint in Joburg, by far. At the moment, Baha Taco’s only permanent restaurant space is in the Sheds.

A beautiful craft shop in the Sheds called Piece.

Let me interrupt my festival photo round-up to show you a picture of what the above shop looked like a couple of months ago:

The Sheds have come a long way since the first time I visited back in June. See more pictures of what the Sheds looked like before the amazing transformation.

That’s enough about the Sheds for now but I’ll come back to it later.

On Friday evening I attended a “Night at the Museum” at the Origins Centre, a Wits University museum in Braamfontein devoted to the evolution of man. I didn’t take many pictures on Friday because a museum at night does not provide the best lighting conditions. But I really enjoyed myself and the museum is great.

I particularly enjoyed one temporary exhibition at the Origins Centre that involves ceramic bunny sculptures.

A ceramic hare in the Origins Centre’s “hare(i)tage” exhibition. I don’t know how to explain this exhibition, other than to say it involves rabbits and the history of African story-telling. You’ll have to go see it yourself. Hurry up because it closes on 10 October.

The hare jumped over the moon.

On Saturday morning I went on a graffiti tour in Braamfontein. I’ll tell you about the tour in a future post because it involves the City of Gold Urban Art Festival, which overlapped with the Joburg City Festival and runs this whole week.

Then I went downtown to the Fashion Kapitol.

On the outdoor runway at the Fashion Kapitol.

The Fashion Kapitol is one of Joburg’s most underrated places – I always have fun when I go there. (I’ve written about it a few times before; see posts here and here.) Saturday afternoon was no exception. There were runway shows, musical performances, dancing, yummy and cheap food, and just a generally awesome vibe.

Happy model.

Serious model.

Androgynous model wearing four-inch heels and dancing better than anyone wearing four-inch heels ever should, to the delight of the other models backstage. I don’t know where this guy came from but he deserves a television contract.

Fashion Kapitol spectators enjoy the action.

Follow the Fashion Kapitol on Facebook to stay informed about future events.

After the Fashion Kapitol I returned to the Sheds for an evening of live music. Some of my favourite South African acts were performing, and the Sheds has great acoustics.

A folk band called Runaway Train Cult. I had never heard them before and really enjoyed them.

This is Tailor. I saw Tailor perform at Oppikoppi in 2012 and her music moved me. Back then I bought her first album, Dark Horse*, and it got me through some difficult times. It was great to see her sing again at the Sheds and I had a nice chat with her afterward. She’s releasing her new album in Joburg on Thursday – details are on her Facebook page.*

Last up was BCUC.

My favorites.

If you know my blog then you probably know BCUC – I refer to them often (here, here, here). I loved their performance, as usual, even though their amazing guitarist quit unexpectedly and they were forced to play without a guitar. But this is Joburg, and like everyone else in this city always does, BCUC made a plan.

On Sunday I slept in. The end.

I can’t wait for next year’s festival.