The third annual Franschhoek Literary Festival this past weekend has been a success, despite extremely heavy rain over the Festival weekend.   Restaurants, shops and accommodation establishments all benefited from the Festival.

Featuring a line-up of speakers including Andre Brink, Max du Preez, Zubeida Jaffer, Shaun Johnson, Vikas Swarup (author of ‘Q & A’, which became the Oscar-winning movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’), Justin Cartwright,  Christopher Hope and the biographers Pippa Green (Trevor Manual) and Jeremy Gordin (Jacob Zuma), many sessions were sold out.   Franschhoek chefs Reuben Riffel and Neil Jewell spoke about their books ‘Reuben Cooks’ and ‘Bread & Wine’, respectively.

Good news for Franschhoek is that Andre Brink announced that his next book is to be set in Franschhoek. 

The Autumn Music Weekend by Christopher Duigan, a regular visitor to Franschhoek, which ran alongside the Festival, was as excellent as ever, especially the “I Got Rhythm” concert.  

The play ‘Bafana Republic III’, which had its premiere at the Festival, was less of a success.  The dinner at Bread & Wine was found by Festival goers to not live up to expectations.