Bay FM Burger Opskop

The annual Bay FM Burger Opskop took place in Despatch today. Bay FM is our local community radio station and broadcasts mainly in Nelson Mandela Bay as well as the surrounding areas. A couple of years ago BAY FM was a struggling radio station with serious financial problems, but that was until Jacques Arendt took over as station manager and shuffled things around a bit. He knew that there was a serious need for Afrikaans music to be played on the radio in this area and tuned into it. Although the station still plays mainly English music, it plays a lot of Afrikaans music as well (it actually caters for all the communities of the metro and their music tastes with different types of music being played throughout the day and night). But it is the Afrikaans listeners that probably support the station the most. One of the station's main fund raising events is a day long Afrikaans music festival that gets rotated between the three centres of the metro. This year the Opskop took place in Despatch and as it was a Sunday and hosted on a school field it was decided to try something radical. They made it an alcohol free day. Big shock? Not at all. My guess there were about 7000 to 8000 people there today enjoying a "drink" free day and supporting some of the top Afrikaans music talent this country has to offer. I for one can't wait till next year's event.

GPS: 33°47'55.69"S, 25°26'19.91"E