The Gardens: Valentines’ delight
Valentines cuddled under the stars for another successful Botanical Gardens celebration.
Many couples celebrated their Valentines Day at the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens in Roodepoort on Friday evening 14 February.
Residents had the opportunity to make the Walter Sisulu Gardens their Valentines destination where they could have had their own romantic picnic, bring candles and even dedicate songs to their loved ones from the stage. At around 7pm the parking lot already was full and amorous couples were making their way to the gardens, each hoping to find the best picnic spot.
According to Ronny Tshabalala, marketing and communications officer for the South African National Biodiversity Institute (Sanbi), local marketing was very successful. Through ticket sales on webtickets.com alone, 850 couples made their way to the beautiful gardens in Poortview. Throughout the night more than 3 000 couples were in attendance, which makes the previous year’s attendance count of 600 couples seem like a small gathering.
“We were so lucky in arranging this event,” Tshabalala told the Record, “because the weather was perfect and it was a Friday, making it more accessible.
“People requested a lot of songs. We nearly couldn’t keep up,” he laughed.
“Couples had celebrated their wedding anniversaries (some their 30th or 40th) by dedicating their wedding songs, usually classic ones, to the other partner.
“We even had a marriage proposal, she said yes!”
