Kirkwood Wildlife Festival to become annual event

FIRM foundations have been laid for the Kirkwood Wildlife Festival in the Eastern Cape to become an annual event, says Kirkwood Festival committee chairperson, Johan Swart. The first festival was held over the weekend of June 28 to June 30 and attracted over 10 000 people. The festival aims to establish Kirkwood as the centre of the wildlife industry in the Eastern Cape. There was a strong emphasis on eco-tourism, hunting, bush adventures, culture, leather goods and crafts - all the ingredients needed to establish the area as a year-round tourism destination, says Swart. He added that bidders travelled from as far as Namibia and the United States for the first Kirkwood Wildlife auction, which included kudu, eland and buffalo bulls from the Addo Elephant National Park as well as black and blue wildebeest, mountain zebras, inyala and reedbuck. Total revenues from the auction were R1,7m. (Miguel de Sousa)