Capital Craft 2014: My Experience

Saturday the 14th of June 2014 will go down in the annals of history as one of the best days of life for one reason: I attended the second edition of Pretoria’s premium beer festival, Capital Craft.

Here’s my review of Capital Craft 2014

We arrived at the Voortrekker Monument (a venue that has become synonymous with Park Acoustics) early and before you could say “Kriek” we were at the token stand and prepping our livers for the day.

I can’t accurately recall all the brews that I sampled, but I do remember that Darling Brew’s Bonecrusher, Capital Craft’s IRA, Lindemann’s Kriek, Jack Black’s Pale Ale and Black Horse’s pale ale featured at some point and were responsible for my semi-drunk state around 4 PM.

Excellent performances by Kabaal Klankbaan, Bacchus Nel, The Ultra Natives, Coelacanth (Gareth Wilson, Jaco Mans and Andre Kriel’s band), The Forrester, Koos Kombuis, Deep Fried Man and the Fake Leather Blues Band (which featured a colab with Koos Kombuis) enhanced the day and morphed it into one that I’ll remember for the rest of my days on this planet.

Over 4,000 people attended this year’s edition of Capital Craft (1,500 more than last year) and the vibe was absolutely amazing. Even though a lot of beer was consumed, I did not see a single fight and I did not need beer goggles to be reminded that South Africa’s capital city has some of the finest specimens when it comes to fairer sex. The only issue that some folks may have had was the length of the token stand queue, but that didn’t demotivate anyone from having a good time.

Kudos to Niel, Henk, Willie, Johan and everyone else who was involved in organizing this year’s event. I’m pretty sure that next year’s edition is just going to be bigger and better. Just a reminder that if you missed this event, you can still sample fine Craft beer in the capital city: the Capital Craft restaurant will be opening its doors in Greenlyn Shopping Centre on Wednesday (the 18th of June 2014). Check out their Facebook page or tweet @capitalcraftpta for more info.

You are also welcome to check out more photos from Capital Craft 2014 on the Henno Kruger Photography page on Facebook.

How was your experience of Capital Craft 2014? Leave a comment and let me know. Feedback is appreciated and welcome here. If you’ve enjoyed reading my review and viewing this photo, feel free to share this article with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

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