Driving east on the R27 through the Northern Cape, lift your gaze from the fields painted in splashes of spring flowers. I’ll wager you can see the smoke – white like a Pope’s been chosen – long before Calvinia hoves into view. Wind down your window, and you may even smell it: lamb chops grilling over open flame. Listen closely, and perhaps you’ll hear Worsie Visser and the Boesmanland Orkes on the speakers.
Die mense kom dwars oor die land
Dis die laste naweek in Augustus maand
Dis lekker hier by die Hantam fees
Hier by Calvinia se lekker Vleisfees
Now, 400km from Cape Town is a long way to drive for a lamb chop, I know, but hear me out. This August, as in almost every year since 1990, there’s nowhere better to find a braai than the Hantam Vleisfees.
Held at the Calvinia sports ground, the Hantam Vleisfees celebrates the food, music and culture of the High Karoo. Take an all-American State Fair straight out of Kentucky and plonk it down in the Karoo and you get the idea.
2026’s three-day programme
In 2026 the programme stretches across three days, starting with the Thursday crowning of the Vleisfees queen and ending with the Sunday service at the NG.
There’s music and food on the Friday, but Saturday (29 August this year) is when the real action kicks off. After the crowd has sat patiently through the official opening by the mayor and dominee, the Laerskool Calvinia Trompoppies will cartwheel and twirl their way in to get the festivities started. They are often followed by a parade of vintage tractors – absent from this year’s official plans, but who knows – before a herd of skittish sheep enter stage left, “encouraged” by a pair of border collies.
Up here in sheep country, collies are working dogs, and I challenge any city slicker at the fees not to be mesmerised by the instinctive connection between dog and handler. Pets these are not, and the skittish sheep know to do what they’re told.
The sheep have good reason to be nervous. As much as the festival is about celebrating Karoo culture, it’s also about food. And the clue’s in the name. The Vleisfees revels in the myriad ways to roast a skaap.
The many ways to cook lamb
While the sheep are shepherded out of the arena, I usually wander across to the food stalls that line one side of the skou. Here all elements of lamb are on offer, or in afval. Smoke billows from a row of crispy tails, fat spitting onto open flames. Don’t be surprised if a smiley eyeballs you from the grid.
When you see a crowd, you’ll know that it’s the kliprib; a cooking technique that’s famous round here. Two flat slabs of Karoo dolerite are heated over open flame. When they’re almost glowing, they’re laid flat to compress and cook a rack of lamb ribs. As I watch the rocks do their thing, plates of ribs fly from the stalls as fast as they are cooked.
At another outdoor kitchen, people close their eyes and smile as they inhale deeply from bowls of potjie. And, if you’re quick, you can get your hands on a portion of lamb kaaiings; crispy cubes of lamb fat and tail fat rendered slowly over the flames. Shoved into a piping hot roosterkoek off the grid, there are few better things to eat in the crisp of a Karoo morning.
Awards, auctions and competitions
At my last fees I took mine and wandered back to the grandstands to watch the midday entertainment. In front of the stands, the crowd is warming up for a highlight of the day: the pinning of rosettes to the prize lambs of this year’s slaglamkompetisie, with the lambs slagged, trimmed and strung up for the crowd to admire.
And then the bidding begins; a machine-gun auctioneer firing prices over the crowd. It starts low, and I think I’m in with a chance. R1500. R1800. I’m picturing a braai and slow braises and tales for my city friends as my hand shoots up again and again. R2200. R2500. But then I lose my nerve. Too rich for my blood. The winner goes for just under three grand. Perhaps I should have stayed the course.
Through the afternoon the braai fires die down, and the cultural programme draws more people to the grandstands. In the sandy arena, the Hantam Rieldansers kick up a cloud of dust as veldskoene stamp and whirl in a flurry of colour.
From the authentic to the faintly amusing, the rieldans rooted in Nama and Khoisan culture gives way to a meat-eating competition that sees a dozen stout men take their seats (you can almost hear the plastic chairs crying out in distress) at a long table to devour a plate of skaap. In minutes these totems of masculinity make short work of a regular week’s worth of protein.
But the real strongmen are yet to arrive. The sterkmankompetisie is not to be missed, as Stellenbosch students clad in polo shirts and unblemished Freedom of Movement vellies pit their biceps against the boerseuns of the Karoo in hauling heavy things back and forth across the parade ground. What the coiffured students evidently fail to realise is that these hardy farmers do more than that before breakfast each day. But they quickly learn who’s boss.
On to the music – and dancing
If you tire of the machismo, wander over to the Sementblad, where the pop stars of the Afrikaans music world take the stage. This year, expect the likes of Nadia Louw, Daniel Viljoen and Hugo Nieuwoudt to bring the treffers.
After sunset, the music rolls on as the crowd trades pop stars for country classics. This year, it’s the Kaapland Boereorkes and Hennie de Bruyn en die Kitaarkêrels who will keep the sokkie going in the Tromp Nel Hall until midnight.
This year I’ll be back up the N7 to Calvinia, maxxing my cholesterol levels for a weekend of song and dance, culture and kaaings. And, if all goes according to plan, I’m coming home with that award-winning slaglam.
WANT TO GO?
- The 2026 Hantam Vleisfees takes place in Calvinia on the weekend of 28-29 August.
- Tickets, only available at the gate, cost R100 (R50 for kids) for Friday and R200 (R100) for Saturday.
- Accommodation in the area gets booked up quickly. Follow the Vleisfees on Facebook (Vleisbook?) for last-minute availability.
