The Nissan Easter Festival took place from March 19 – 28 at the world-class Kyalami Equestrian Park in Johannesburg.
The venue sprang to life with a full weekend of action-packed events, including showjumping and dressage, an Easter egg hunt, a dog agility show, a fancy dress competition, a horse-carriage race and a Lipizzaner show. South Africa’s top riders such as Nicola Sime, Annemarie Esslinger, Lorette Knowles-aylor, Dominey Alexander, Barry John Taylor, Ronnie Lawrence, Nicole Horwood, Sam McIntosh, Ray Korber, Oscar Ncube and Lisa Williams all competed in a large variety of high-energy equestrian classes and gave the crowd a nail-biting performance as they witnessed the hard work and training of these respected riders.
The first part of the festival focused on the dressage classes, while the remainder of the show mainly featured showjumping events. The main class was the 2016 Nissan SA Outdoor Grand Prix, which took place on Monday, March 28. After a competitive run from all who participated, the winner’s podium rankings were:
1 Nicola Sime Riley, 2 Shannon Smith, 3 Lauren Smorenburg, 4 Lorette Knowles-Taylor, and 5 Chris van der Merwe.
In the junior events, the 2016 Nissan Children’s Outdoor Grand Prix winner was Matthew Morrison with his horse Hundred Runs. They took home the Ella Paulson Memorial Trophy.
Other highlights of the festival included the Nissan GT-R High Performance Challenge and Nissan Six Bar.
Delicious food markets were available with various treats. There was also a kids zone filled with mechanical rides, jumping castles and craft activities. The adults got to socialise, sit back and relax with each other and enjoy all that the day had to offer with some of South Africa’s most familiar faces, including the recently crowned Miss South Africa 2016 Ntandoyenkosi Kunene.
With such an exciting programme of events for all who attended, it is no wonder why this free entrance family event is such a huge success year after year. Nissan South Africa CEO South Africa, Mike Whitfield was “delighted that this year’s event was such a success and cannot wait to see what next year has to offer. We will ensure that we keep up the momentum and high standard of the Nissan Easter Festival”.
This event is definitely one to diarise. Make sure you are there to experience all the excitement Nissan has to offer.
