Kaapse Klopse Date Changed Again 2017

The History behind the Kaapse Klopse

The Cape Town Minstrel Carnival is moving to sixteen June

Every year the streets of Cape Town are flooded with a flurry of colour, song, drumbeats and movement every bit the Kaapse Klopse explode into them for the Tweede Nuwe Jaar Minstrel Parade. The traditional date is ii Jan, but this yr it will be moved to the 16th of June due to current health restrictions.

It'S Like 60 Unlike SHOWS PASSING Yous BY
Known in English as the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival, the annual New Twelvemonth's festival sees thousands of people in glittery uniforms, face paint, hats and parasols march through the metropolis's roads playing their signature ghoema music on banjos, trumpets and drums.

It'south not a g-man band. The parade is made upwards of several well-rehearsed minstrel troupes, each playing its own vocal in its ain style. "For spectators, it'south similar watching 50 or 60 shows pass you," says Kevin Momberg, CEO of the Greatcoat Town Minstrels Carnival Association.

The troupes are spaced out and so that each performance happens separately and one sound doesn't drown out the other. In that location is also a structure to each troupe, with non-instrument playing members called "voorlopertjies" leading the way with extravagant trip the light fantastic moves while the band follows them, providing the soundtrack.

THE PARADE IS Function OF A BIGGER Competition
This entertaining one-24-hour interval street parade is only one aspect of the broader carnival. What many Capetonians and tourists don't know is that the open-air commemoration is just a sideshow to a major contest that runs every Saturday until mid-February at the Athlone Stadium.

Yous Tin Also WATCH THE FORMAL Competition

The lengthy, structured contest sees xl-plus minstrel clubs – each identified by a unique colour scheme and some with more than than one 000 members – compete in a wide range of categories from the best-dressed squad, all-time band, combined chorus, male solo, pulsate major, minstrel song, Champion of Champions and more. This competition is a big bargain to the troupes, who offset practising their melodies and repertoires many months in accelerate.

THE KAAPSE KLOPSE HAS A COLOURFUL HISTORY
The Klopse culture is steeped in historic tradition, a history that, unfortunately, has been poorly documented. "Some of it is hearsay, some of information technology is folklore, some of it is even imaginary," says Kevin, with reference to the colourful stories that circulate around the festival's heritage.

In the folklore, the Tweede Nuwe Jaar street party dates dorsum to the colonial era, when slavery was rife in South Africa. Slaves had but one 24-hour interval off a year: 2 January. So while their masters slept off the debauchery of New year's day's day, slaves used the day for carousal and self-expression through vibrant song and dance in the streets.

Simply according to sahistory.org.za, the rule came from the governor of the Greatcoat at the time, Isbrand Bankrupt. He wanted slaves to join the New year's Twenty-four hour period celebrations past refraining from piece of work and accepting offerings of article of clothing, money and tobacco. And so on 1 January 1674, slaves joined their masters in celebration of New year's Day and, as office of their celebrations, the slaves also paraded in the streets singing serenades.

When the slaves were emancipated in the 1830s, they celebrated in the same way and continued to practice so over the New Year's flow.

History plays an of import role in Klopse culture and the carnival is every bit much nigh raucous carousal and entertainment as it is near preserving an age-one-time custom.

"Tradition is the bottom line – that'southward what it's all about," says Kevin firmly. "It goes on today considering of tradition, and it will go on for the adjacent 100 years because of this, too."

This is besides why the funfair is a predominantly Coloured thing. Although clubs welcome those of other races and cultures, for well-nigh members, the Klopse and what goes with information technology is simply in their claret – a ritual they learnt from their parents and will pass on to their own children in fourth dimension.

WATCH: GET INTO THE MOOD KAAPSE KLOPSE-STYLE

THE ORIGIN OF GHOEMA
Another legend states that the fashion of music played past minstrels, called ghoema, was heavily influenced by American minstrels who arrived in the Mother City on ships such as the Alabama (hence the famed Malay vocal 'Daar Kom Dice Alibama).

Sentinel: A KLOPSE Group PERFORMS A RENDITION OF DAAR KOM DIE ALIBAMA

Some historical versions country that the slaves painted their faces to hide their identities from their masters, allowing them to make fun of the masters covertly.

Sahistory.org.za says that, because American minstrel performers were white and their acts were black American songs, they used blackface and wore colourful tailcoats. This could take impacted the locals who painted their faces black and white, but also incorporated elements of the foreigners' upbeat melodies into their own musical mix – already a blend of African, European and Asian influences – to create the uniquely Capetonian audio of ghoema, as it'due south known today.

Interestingly, it's as well likely that the term Coon Funfair, every bit the Kaapse Klopse was known for years before the name was officially inverse, comes from these visiting performers, as coon was a common derogatory term describing slaves in America. Another interpretation is that the term coon was used because the face paint fabricated performers wait like racoons.

FOLLOW THE PARADE AND THE Competition
Tweede Nuwe Jaar is the easiest way to spotter the Cape Minstrels. The troupes march from Keizersgracht Street, in Zonnebloem, through Darling and Adderley Sreets, upward Wale Street, finishing on Rose Street in the historic Bo-Kaap. This is free to sentinel and everyone is invited. But be mindful that the CBD can go packed for this occasion and some people even military camp overnight to proceed their spots for the best view, so expect an excited crowd.

Go AN Thought OF THE VIBE AT THE TWEEDE NUWE JAAR CELEBRATIONS

Y'all tin also see the more than structured competition comprising a range of shows, from Afrikaans and English musical pieces to military-way marches.

This happens every Saturday betwixt 1 January and mid-February at the Athlone Stadium. Entrance costs between R30 and R40.

Note: While many presume that the Christmas bands and Malay choirs (nagtroepe) that sing and perform in the CBD's streets on Christmas Eve and New year's Eve respectively are part of the Cape Town Minstrel Funfair, they are, in fact, split up. Many Cape Minstrels also participate in these groups, and while they are certainly an important ingredient of the broader holiday-time festivities, they are not strictly a role of the Kaapse Klopse.

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Observe something to do the day earlier the big carnival with these things to do on New Years Day.

It may not be ghoema, just you can all the same meet some nifty music at these live music venues.

Or keep dancing long afterward the parade is over at one of these Cape Town nightclubs.

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Source: https://www.capetownmagazine.com/kaapse-klopse

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