The ‘City of
The Royal Show is an event which dates back from 1851, and is a major business boosting event for Pietermaritzburg. This is an event filled with heaps of festivities ranging from agricultural exhibition, fun rides and rollercoaster, shopping, art decoration racing, and it basically boils down to a promotion orgy. Over the years the show has drawn the interest of the SABC and government, where government has used the platform as means of communication.
On the other hand the event has become an annual calendar for high school kinds and ahs also been dubbed as a drinking orgy for these kids who travel from distant town to meet the popular culture kwaito musicians. There were years when they excluded the rides. I believe that the organizers shot themselves in the butt by taking this unpopular decision which lost the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business (PCB) some grands. I heard it through the grapevine that they will be bringing back the fun to the show and laaities who come to the show with this one single mission and purpose.
I also have a personal experience of the Royal Show. I remember the first time I went to the Royal Show. I think at that time the fee at the gate was around R2.00 - R2.50. Man it was worth the price. I was still in primary. At that time nothing used to matter more than fun and the rides. Playing all those ‘shoot the bear’, ‘ghost train’ ‘merry-go-round’ ‘carousel’ and many more. Then it was the food, the burgers, donuts, ice cream, you name it. Those were treats for me at that age. It was a craze for me and my cousin, and it was a bonus for us if we re able to buy those foil gas balloons and propeller fans. The aircraft display in the skies above was spectacular. It was such a great experience.
Now when I heard that the uKhozi FM concert will be moved to a weekend a week after the show closes. It doesn’t take a genius to realize why this concert has been moved to dates outside the ‘grand royal show’, citing the eclipsing of other events and promotions of other activities by the uKhozi FM concert. It’s plain simple, the bourgeois who come to the show and who are predominantly white have become not very keen on the sight of black school children getting drunk to shock the values of the white man, a perception which says that the Royal Show is probably not so ‘royal’ anymore. Of course, the last weekend on which this concert usually take place generates more revenue for the show than other days because it is always a month-end-weekend.
Next week I pack my
