The annual Penguin Festival will be taking place on Saturday October 8 at Boulders Beach to celebrate African Penguin Awareness Day.
The day is hosted by the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) and South African National Parks (SANParks).
The festival starts with the release of African penguins that were rehabilitated by Sanccob and takes place at 10am at Seaforth Beach in Simon’s Town. Parking can be found at the Seaforth Beach parking area.
Be sure not to miss this moving event as these penguins waddle their way back into the ocean. After the re- lease festival-goers can head to the Simon’s Town Navy Sports Fields situated right next to Seaforth Beach for the start of the festival activities.
This year includes three big tented areas for live music, kids’ games, edutainment and various exhibitions from marine conservation organisations. Kids’ activities include a chance to meet a real ambassador African penguin, a mini-soccer tournament, a puppet show, mini rides, an inflatable obstacle course and many other fun activities. For the adults, there will be craft beer, wine tasting, a special cooking demonstration by a SASSI Braai Ambassador and various tantalising food trucks.
General admission is free and it costs R100 for an all-access pass to the kids games. Kids under two enter for free. The festival runs from 10am until 4pm.
* With the help of partners such as SANParks, Sanccob admits close to 1 500 African penguins and 1 000 other seabirds for rehabilitation to its centres and releases them back into the wild to boost the wild African penguin population. Alarmingly, only 2% of the African penguin population remain in the wild today. All proceeds from the festival are donated to Sanccob in support of their African penguin conservation work.
