Chefs, wine lovers, foodies and comedians  from around the world all met in Gauteng this past weekend. With the Tops at Spar Wine Show, the Fire & Feast Butchers Festival and the Savanna Newcomer Showcase all taking place this past weekend it’s safe to say that there was a little something for everyone to do this weekend. Lucky for me I got invited to all these shows and this is what went down.

I started our weekend at the Tops at Spar Wine Show on Friday at Monte Casino. The wine show showcased 89 exhibitors with lots of different vibrant wine selections ranging from The Wolftrap, Tokara, Stellenbosch Winery, Spier, Nederburg, Delheim to Raka wines and many more, with some accompanied by delicious chocolate pairings. Our favourites of the night were the Wolftrap Rose, the Hermanuspietersfontein Bloos, the Splattered Toad Shiraz and the Koelenbosch Chenin Blanc. I obviously didn’t taste any of my regulars wines because that would have been boring, so I made sure to go out and try everything new and I totally enjoyed most of them, even ended up walking out with a few bottles. I really enjoyed this wine show because it wasn’t messy and over crowded with people who know nothing about wine that just go to these shows to get drunk. It was classy, educational, relaxing and a perfect way to end a Friday evening.

My second event of the weekend was the Fire & Feast Butchers Festival which took place at the Ticketpro Dome. Here I was able to sample delicious hams, ribs, steaks and free range chicken at all the different meat stations.  I  also  enjoyed tasting some of the finest cheeses, nuts, biltong and the super delicious Sally Williams nougat and chocolates (walked a way with a couple boxes afterwards). The best part of the afternoon for me was relaxing at the Malfy Gin station while enjoying a refreshing ice cold Gin & Tonic. As a gin lover I am now officially a fan of Malfy Gin and will definitely be adding it to my collection soon. A great show for meat lovers but I did feel like there was just way too much meat to try out. I did however leave the show having collected a whole lot of different products everything from vegetable cutters, wine to lots and lots of biltong.

I ended my weekend with an awesome night of comedy at the Savanna Newcomer Showcase which took place in Soweto at the Soweto Theatre on Sunday. The show treated us to 24 up and coming comedians who had to battle it out by delivering a unique 5 minute set each in the hopes of being crowned the 2017 Savanna Newcomer at this years Savanna Comics Choice Awards! I must say all the comedians totally brought down the house as they had me and the rest of the crowd in stitches and made us wonder how can newcomers be this good? Before the show started we were treated to a pre-show party which I must say was very well organised everything from the production, food and decor to the performers was spectacular. One of my highlights of the evening was DJ Fistaz Mixwell’s set accompanied by his amazing band that sure know how to throw down some mean and epic beats! My top comedians of the evening were Teboho Theoha, Troy Tesla and Ben Thapz I really hope one of them wins it all, Good Luck to all the performers though you guys all did really well! This was indeed the perfect way to end our weekend of eventing! Comedy sure does warm up the soul and the team at Whacked sure knows how to bring us the best quality events!!