Kleinmond Big Blues Festival

We were fortunate this weekend to be attending the Kleinmond Big Blues Festival, featuring some of South Africa's best Blues talent.

Kleinmond is a beautiful sleepy seaside town around 115km from Cape Town on the other side of False Bay.

We had booked a B&B for the weekend, which was fortunately only 10 minutes walk to the festival grounds.

We checked into the B&B and then headed off for some lunch at the Kleinmond Harbour, which was scattered with restaurants.

I have been looking forward to seeing Valiant Swart for sometime now. He is the guitarist pictured below. In the 18 months we spent in Jozi, not once did he venture up north to play. He is mainly Western Cape based. It was great to finally see him in action.

The venue was really quite intimate. We could get up close and personal with the performers. There wasn't too much of a crowd early Friday afternoon

After Valiant's gig, the Diamondback Blues Band came on at around 6pm. They really had the crowd going. These guys have been around the South African blues circuit a while now and were brilliant.

Pictured below is Anton Goosen. Hahaha, who would have belived all these years later I would have paid to see him perform. Back in the 80's he sang very Afrikaans types of music which the 'Englishmen' wouldn't dream of listening too. Anton reminded me of an Afrikaans Neil Young. He performed with Albert Frost and together they were really great!

Below is Piet Botha, the son of former Apartheid Minister 'Pik' Botha. Ruth and I have seen him play around 4 times now and I really enjoy his music. His supporting band were outstanding too.

Early Saturday morning after breakfast, Ruth and I took a long stroll along Kleinmond beach. The water was freezing cold, seeing as it is the Atlantic ocean, but didn't stop us from going for a a swim.

Underneath, is Albert Frost in full swing. This guys was incredible!

Here he is, performing with Dave Fergusen.

I have been reading a lot about a young Canadian girl now residing in Cape Town. Her name is Natasha Meister. She is only 20 years old, but, boy can she sing and play guitar. I wish I could play that well....

Dan Patlansky (Below) was once again in his element. We have seen him twice in Johannesburg too. He plays in the Texan Blues style of Stevie Ray Vaughn. Blues Prodigy he is known as. The sounds he can coax from his Fender are unbelievable.

Below is a Very White crowd! Who says Apartheid is dead??

When we left Kleinmond on Sunday afternoon, we stopped in at the Harold Porter Botanical Gardens in Betty's Bay. We hiked up to some waterfalls which were so beautiful.

Ruth chilling out...