Frankie Buthelezi The theme for this year’s Durban July held on Saturday the 2nd was “A Royal Affair” and boy was it royal! Being the first time actually attending the event, my expectations were naturally sky high. Upon arriving my heart was beating unusually fast as I watched people from all walks of life streaming into the course dressed to impress. Unfortunately my colleagues and I didn’t have the luxury of looking lavish, taking into account the fact that we were on duty (sigh). However, once inside all of those insecurities went flying out the window and we ended up having a good time, getting a taste of what it is like to be “the inside man”. With our media passes we had the opportunity of exploring the ins and outs of this prestigious event and experiencing first hand why people religiously attend year after year. Walking around the colossal course for hours felt like being inside a fantasy art gallery, surrounded by queens, kings, princesses and princes. And then there were the beautiful but extremely overpriced marquees (on average entrance cost about R900 a ticket) with people getting up to all sorts of “activities” in there…. We also got to meet a few stars which was super cool. It was very interesting to see how people don’t really care about the horse races, from my point of view; the event has gone from a lavish sport event to a center of fashion. With regards to fashion, people didn’t fail to impress, there were some pretty extraordinary designs which showed just how talented South Africa really is. And when the sun set everyone was ready to party, concerts everywhere, marquees pumping up the music, people getting drunk having lots of fun. Overall, I must say, I learnt a lot from this experience. It was truly a royal affair.
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