A 12m-high stage with a spectacular salmon pink mansion set featuring a grand staircase lit up with 3D mapped laser projections that would have done Baz Luhrmann proud.
Mime artists and performers on stilts meandering through the crowds to add to the carnival mood.
Awesome performances by an impressive bill of local acts including Mi Casa, Zakes Bantwini and the Ndlovu Youth Choir (proof you don’t need an expensive international headliner to reel in a crowd) — and a host of experiences from an “uncaged carousel” party area to the Savanna Speakeasy set in a “fantastical forest” complete with the most glamorous fortune teller you’d ever set eyes upon.
Yes, in many ways the Luxurious Marble Circus last weekend lived up to its promise of “an unforgettable food and music festival”.
But then there are the things I’d rather forget — like coughing up an arm and a leg for a G&T and the lonely scallop in a white ceramic clam shell saucer floating on a plate of gift-box stuffing passing as a course in a “fine dining extravaganza” ...
The festival took place over two days at a sprawling 75,000m² estate called Ground in Muldersdrift.
Opting to visit on Sunday, the final day of the festivities, I greet interior design luminary Trevor Julius and his banking exec wife, Khantse Radebe, on the way in before making my way into the Grand Dining Room marquee with its crystal chandeliers hanging from the rafters and expansive viewing deck overlooking the stage.
At R4,950 a head, these are seats for the well-heeled — and considering that doesn’t include even a whiff of H2O, I was expecting the five-course meal by David Higgs of Marble fame (hence the title of the festival) and celebrated chef Reuben Riffel to be a culinary trapeze act to catch my breath.
But, while the meal did feature a few standouts like the creamiest burrata, freshly shucked oysters and sizeable mains, and our waiter Morgan impressive in his calm approach to juggling many tables, I would have rather taken a one-way ticket to Cape Town to savour a real fine dining experience at La Colombe (with booze) and still gotten change.
The skimpy scallop sitting on a tangle of raffia was the icing on the cake.
Deciding to ditch this food circus act, I popped into the Royal Lounge next door where the cool crowd, including ex-footballer Stanton Fredericks with his pretty wife, Guinevere, and Sim Gumede, the eldest son of IT magnate Robert and friend of the late rapper AKA, with his wife Tshego, were taking in the vibes.
Next, a search for liquid refreshment led to a neck of the festival woods where cider brand Savanna had pitched an outdoor lounge to toast the arrival of its new whisky-flavoured variant cleverly called Savanna Neat.
It's there I spotted celebs like TV personality Moshe Ndiki, actor Kwenzo Ngcobo and influencer Mohale Motaung, who, in a nod to the Scottish bent of the cider’s new flavour, turned up in a very chic kilt.
I also got my fortune read by comic Celeste Ntuli, who, to humour the circus theme of the festival, donned the persona of a fortune teller called Madame WaeJaPapaNo.
On to reading in a different form at this year’s Sunday Times Literary Awards, in partnership with Exclusive Books, at The Melrose Gallery in Joburg’s Melrose Arch precinct.
In years gone by this has been quite a formal occasion, but of late these prestigious annual nods for non-fiction and fiction have loosened the tie for a more social cocktail affair.
In between tucking into a harvest table of canapés, formalities were handled by comedian and podcaster Simmi Areff with a quirky flair matched by his sparkly shoes.
We hear from Sunday Times ed S’thembiso Msomi, who succinctly explained the importance of championing the written word.
“It is through books that we cultivate informed citizens, empower communities and ensure the growth of our democracy ... Books are not just vessels of knowledge, they are instruments of empowerment that help us build a more equitable society,” he said.
When Grattan Kirk takes to the podium, the Exclusive Books CEO emphasises that “our north star has got to be getting more people reading and getting children reading as soon as we can”.
The Irishman, who has been at the helm of the bookseller since 2018, points out that the reality is that just one-tenth of our population buys one book a year.
In delivering his keynote address, retired Constitutional Court judge Edwin Cameron sounds another sombre note, warning that “despite the heartening successes, the perished termites of state incapacity, corruption, criminal syndicalism, deception, lies and disorder are gnawing at the pillars and the foundations of our democracy” (I urge you to read the full transcript in the Insight section of this newspaper today).
On to the 10 nominees for this year’s awards, and it strikes me that this is a male-heavy group of writers barring Caster Semenya (nominated in the non-fiction section for her autobiography The Race to Be Myself) and Kate Fairbanks, also competing for the non-fiction nod for The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa’s Racial Reckoning. However, there is also a refreshing new wave of literary talents like first-time authors Sven Axelrad, nominated for the coming-of-age novel Buried Treasure, and Jarred Thompson for The Institute for Creative Dying (even though both do appear to have a morbid fascination).
Sven is quite a prodigious writer — on to his third book after debuting Buried Treasure last year — but maybe that has a little to do with needing a creative outlet from his office job as an accountant for a company “that makes bread and tampons”.
Who walked away with the gongs?
Jonny Steinberg takes home the non-fiction prize for the epic Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage, while Andrew Brown, who came along with his fiancée, Malose Mamashela, was awarded the fiction nod for The Bitterness of Olives.
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