And, the SA Cheese Festival is back!

A series of four SA Cheese Festival Pop-up Picnics will take place at various popular destinations over four weekends in April this year. From the Winelands to Walker Bay to the West Coast and then back to the Winelands again for more.

With limited tickets available, cheese and wine lovers will need to jump at the opportunity to join in on the fun with the upcoming pop-up picnics as the popular festival unfolds into an expedition of discovery. A variety of exhibitors will be offering everything you might need for the perfect picnic adventure – from picnic baskets to local, international and artisanal cheeses, selected wine, craft beer and gin, as well as exceptional foods and local products. Not to mention free entertainment by top local artists and tasting demonstrations.

READ: If ‘cheese’ is made without milk, is it really cheese?

Here’s how the pop-up picnics will work

The first weekend of cheese and wine will take place at Warwick Wine Estate, which is located at the foot of Simonsberg between Stellenbosch and Klapmuts, with a rich history dating back to 1771. The first weekend of the festival is sure to lure young and old to the area, with Watershed due to perform on both days and a variety of exhibitors with wines from the area, cheese, beer gin and other picnic delicacies to tickle your fancy.

The second SA Cheese Festival Pop-up Picnic on the weekend of 9 April allows visitors to explore Benguela Cove Lagoon Wine Estate outside Hermanus. Here you can indulge in panoramic views of the lagoon and the Atlantic Ocean and learn the art of Sabrage (opening a bottle of bubbly with a sabre). Of course, you’ll also get to taste the estate’s wines and meet a variety of exhibitors, while enjoying sounds from Ard Matthews on Saturday and Francois van Coke and his supergroup, Die Gevaar on Sunday.

The West-Coast has a romance to it that you will only understand once you’ve been. The third of four pop-up weekends will take place at Groote Post Wine Estate in the Darling hills, based in the West Coast. This 18^th century farm will be abuzz on the weekend on 23 April, offering visitors country hospitality, exhibitors with divine cheeses and other delicacies, award-winning wines from the estate and other wine farms, as well as craft beer and gin. On Saturday, Die Heuwels Fantasties will be performing live, and on Sunday, Francois van Coke and Die Gevaar will once again entertain the crowd.

Things will come full circle with the festival’s pop-up picnic series returning to the winelands for its last weekend on 30 April and 1 May. This time it will be hosted at Sandringham outside Stellenbosch, boasting a variety of interesting cheeses, food and drink exhibitors and fun entertainment. Heuwels Fantasties will be there too, as well as Will Linley on the Saturday and Flat Stanley and Kurt Darren on the Sunday. This weekend is also a long weekend, with the Monday being a public holiday, so if you’d like to tap into that, you’d better jump for a ticket! There are 2000 tickets available per day at Sandringham – conveniently located between Cape Town and Paarl.

Book your R350 ticket on Webtickets or at your nearest Pick ’n Pay store. No tickets will be sold at the gates. Only a limited number of tickets are available at each venue and Covid-19 protocols apply.