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| TOPS
Soweto Wine Festival Pops A Cork in Celebration |
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TOPS Soweto Wine Festival attracted a record
8550 people over the 3 evenings |
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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.” |
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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. |
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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.”
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