Barleycorn Music Festival

Date:      Saturday 8^th March 2013

Time:      16h00 – 22h00
Venue:   Maynardville Open Air Theatre, Wynberg

Costs:     Adults R60, Members R50, students / scholars / pensioners R40, under 12’s free

The Barleycorn Music Club will be presenting its vibrant annual music fest on Saturday 8^th March 2013. Bring a blanket, family, friends and a picnic and join us for some of the very best upandcoming talent Cape Town has to offer. (Food & drinks also for sale at the venue).
Activities for kids – jumping castle, face painting and more. Acts include Black Southeaster, Mother City Mojo, Digby & the Lullaby, Hotel Iris, Wayne Pauli, James Hall & James Harvey, Andrew Janich, Julie & Caroline Blundell and Gareth Smit. Tickets will be available at the festival or at the club every Monday night from 8pm, Villagers Rugby Club, 11 Lansdowne Road, Claremont. Contact Martin on 08249315640824931564 or see www.barleycorn.org.za for more info.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BARLEYCORN & THE ANNUAL FEST

It all started in 1975, when a bunch of musicians decided to meet regularly to jam together, learn from one another and consume beer. Over the past 39 years, the Barleycorn has met almost every week to make what is now one of Cape Town’s most loved and respected music venues for performers and listeners alike. In the early years the music was mostly ‘traditional folk’, with a smattering of blues, bluegrass, country music, and olde English and Irish material containing toxic levels of screeching fiddles.
The club rapidly developed a reputation as a place where homegrown original material by local composers and performers found a receptive audience, and it is these who have gradually formed the focus of the club. The club now encompasses all kinds of diverse musical styles, people and passions. By 1977, the Barleycorn had become formalised as a non-profit organisation committed to using accumulated funds for the promotion of local musical talent. The annual music fest provides the perfect platform to put these funds to good use!

The inaugural festival was held in 1980 at the Maynardville Open Air Theatre, packed to capacity to hear 20 acts perform over 9 hours. The undoubted star of that show was the then unknown David Kramer whose songs “Red veldskoen” and “Porkpie hat” captivated absolutely everyone, including members of the press who gave his career a massive kickstart! Thereafter the Barleycorn Music Fest has become an annual event and long is the list of eminent musicians who’ve graced the stage including Flat Stanley, Freshly Ground, Steve Newman, Tony Cox …the list goes on! Don’t miss this event!

When was the Barleycorn started?