Wind gusts of over 60km/h, a partially collapsed marquee tent and major damages to the pop-up bar area could not stop the annual Dolos Festival from continuing at the weekend.
In fact, according to convenor Elize Boshoff, this year’s event was easily one of the most successful Dolos Festivals that she and her committee have organised in the past nine years.
Friday night saw hundreds of people turning up to see, among others, Brendan Peyper, Gavin Edwards and Juan Boucher perform live and to browse the interesting stalls.
However, during the night, heavy winds picked up, peaking at about 6am on Saturday morning.
At exactly 7:10am a strong gust flattened the back part of the main marquee tent.
Fortunately, it was early in the morning and nobody was injured.
The bar fridges and stock were not so fortunate, however, and bar convenor Chris Boshoff suffered a loss.
‘I have never seen such wonderful support and cameraderie,’ said an emotional Elize. ‘Within minutes bystanders, stall holders and Dolos Festival committee members all jumped in to save whatever they could and help move tables and chairs.
‘We even had seven different church leaders praying for the successful continuation of the festival.
‘I saw Richards Bay residents standing together this past weekend and it leaves me humbled,’ she said.
For safety reasons, the terrain had to be closed to the public, but by 3pm the marquee tent had been fixed, the bar restocked and fully functional and the grounds cleared of any tell-tale signs of the morning’s drama.
‘The problem was solved within seven hours,’ said Elize, adding that most festival-goers did not even know about the mishap.
It is difficult to say whether the turnout was affected by one malicious text message that did the rounds, falsely announcing that the festival had been cancelled.
By the time the main artists for Saturday night started their performances, the main arena was jam-packed with merry fans and all the stalls had long queues of eager supporters.
This year’s feedback has been overwhelming and Elize said her cellphone had been inundated with congratulatory messages.
She added there would not have been a Dolos Festival without the support of the sponsors, especially uMhlathuze Municipality.
Her committee also played a major role. ‘They are the best – they’ve been part of this journey for the past nine years and are incredibly supportive.’
Next year will be the 10th festival and Elize is already planning something special to commemorate the milestone.
Earmarked for the weekend of 21 to 23 September 2018, Elize hopes to bring back 10 of the most memorable artists who have performed over the past nine years.
Alkantstrand has proved to be an excellent venue with a lot of potential for future events.
Elize invites the public to email their suggestions and solutions regarding the venue to elize@dolosfees.com
• Were you at the Dolos Festival? Share your photos on social media and tag them #dolosfees
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