Cape Town is bursting with excitement from December 16th to 22nd! You can groove at Greenmarket Square for Reconciliation Day, where history meets a massive music party. Then, feel the roar of the crowd at a rugby game before dancing all night at TropicalDisko, turning an old school into a futuristic queer celebration. Plus, there are secret jazz clubs, eco-protests, and yummy food everywhere. Get ready for a wild week that will make your heart race and leave you utterly amazed!
Cape Town’s December week features a diverse range of events. Highlights include Reconciliation Day celebrations at Greenmarket Square on December 16th, a rugby double-header and TropicalDisko festival on December 17th, and various micro-festivals, jazz speakeasies, and protests throughout the week, offering a vibrant cultural experience for locals and visitors.
Greenmarket Square, 15:00-22:00
Centuries after human cargo changed hands on the same stones, Greenmarket Square will throb with 15 000 watts of line-array sound on 16 December. Reconciliation Day swaps curio sellers for food-truck constellations and a circular stage where every angle is front-row.
A twelve-minute video mural, beamed onto the Old Town House, will rewind Adams’ 42-stage journey from District Six: The Musical to tonight. Straight after the montage he’ll drop “Klopse in the Cloud,” a ghoema-punk grenade performed with thirty horn players scattered across three balconies – no backing track, all lung power.
Mafikizolo open with the 2003 smash “Ndihamba Nawe,” Alistair Izobell hijacks the vibe with a Klopse remix, Robin Pieters melts gospel into house, and Black Ties detonate a brass-heavy “Mannenberg” exactly as the 22:00 curfew bell tolls – seven minutes of catharsis you’ll feel in your ribcage.
Bridges for Music, the NGO that flew three Langa beat-makers to Sónar in June, hands them the 19:00 golden hour. A Red Bull studio-on-wheels will multitrack the set; free WAV downloads go live before the last bus leaves.
Bio-cups woven from sugar-cane pulp carry QR tags. Each scan triggers the planting of a spekboom cutting in the Atlantis dunes. Goal: 4 000 new carbon sponges by midnight – one shrub per five drinks.
Burg, Longmarket, Church and Shortmarket lock down at dawn. Residents inside the ring must fetch a vehicle pass from the Central Library office before Monday 15:00. Rideshare? Aim for the Golden Acre rooftop – slow lifts, epic skyline pic, zero traffic cops.
DHL Stadium & Cape Town High School
The boys in navy-and-teal haven’t lost since August; the Lions arrive with a scrum that devoured Leinster. Expect 42 000 voices and the loudest “Newlands” chant since the old ground retired.
Manie Libbok’s tee now has 17k Insta followers after he reclaimed seventeen restarts. The Lions answer with 19-year-old Henco van Wyk – 92 % aerial catch rate, zero fear.
Fans wearing black can donate a children’s book at any gate. By half-time volunteers will have stacked 10 000 volumes into a goal-post-shaped pop-up library for Nal’ibali’s reading campaign.
A 55-metre wrap-around display will track real-time territorial advantage – think expected goals, but for field position.
MyCiTi loops start at 13:00 from Civic Centre, CTICC and Thibault. Board at Thibault – opposite traffic, drops you at Field-1 gate, two minutes from the Castle Beer Hall. After the final whistle, loiter until 18:45; the last buses leave half-empty and you’ll be in town before the press-conference clichés begin.
Flash your match stub at six CBD clubs after 20:00 – The Piano Bar’s ghoema session and District’s afro-tech loft included. UV ink glows till 02:00.
Cape Town High, Gardens, 11:00-23:00
Built in 1905, the school’s wrought-iron balconies become catwalks, the art room a vogue academy, and the basement air-raid shelter a techno cave cooled by fans salvaged from Table Bay power station.
Tara Dey fuses Xhosa vocals with modular synth; 3Divas lip-sync kwaito classics while dangling from rugby posts; Hamburg’s Giz ships his own rotary mixer for a three-hour sunset set that ends the instant the sun kisses Signal Hill; Queezy coins “pianoquake” by marrying AmaPiano log drums to 150-BPM gqom.
Pack biodegradable glitter – school gutters feed straight into Company’s Garden koi ponds. Bring a collapsible bottle; water stations are free and earn you R20 off the bar.
Gender-neutral loos on every floor, evolving neon signage by Anwar Davids. A quiet garden behind the biology block offers noise-cancelling headphones and therapy dogs 16:00-18:00. Triangle Project provides 15-minute HIV & Mpox tests plus two-month PrEP starter packs.
Chalk symbols appear on the pavement at 23:05: flamingo + disco ball = follow the bass. Last year the trail ended in a 04:00 rooftop salsa above a Roeland Street loading dock – bring comfortable shoes.
Wednesday 06:00: silent-disco gratitude session on Clifton 3rd – pyjamas and cocktail umbrellas compulsory.
Thursday 19:00: 1920s jazz pop-up at Artscape – password “Klipfontein,” flapper gear adored.
Friday 15:00: mass inner-tube float down the Liesbeek to protest mall development – best recycled-plastic costume wins a year of Devil’s Peak beer.
“Koesister Queen” outside Unity sells naartjie-injected minis – R20 for three.
DHL Stadium’s “Scrum-Bunny” piles beer-battered onion rings onto lamb curry – only 300 per game.
TropicalDisko’s Kind Kitchen slings mushroom “calamari” and dragon-fruit slushies spiked with buchu gin.
Unity tee: Peter Clarke hand-drawn District Six map – profits fund heritage street-sign restitution.
Stormers retro teal: 1995 throwback with sublimated King Protea – stadium-only match day.
Bamboo fan: QR links to 1980s queer-club AR archive – hover your phone over the Chelsea Hotel’s ghost dancefloor.
MyCiTi day-pass R35, 05:00-23:30.
e-Hail from the station footbridge to skip surge chaos.
Up Cycles overnight drop-off before 23:30 – pink lane from Gardens to CBD glows under streetlights.
16-24 °C, south-easter at 35 km/h – pack a windbreaker that doubles as picnic blanket.
Stage-2 blackouts unlikely before 20:00; all venues run silent generators – TropicalDisko’s on recycled cooking oil.
Download “Namola” for instant GPS-linked emergency help.
Yellow lanyard rule for photographers at Unity & TropicalDisko – respect no-selfie zones around kids and vogue balls.
Greenmarket cobbles still carry chisel marks of 18th-century Dutch East India inspectors.
DHL Stadium seats rest on 1945 breakwater rubble – every fan sits ten metres above what was once seabed.
Cape Town High’s balcony hosted SA’s first public trans speech by Ricki Kgositau in 1987 – two years before OLGA formed.
Between reconciliation brass, rugby thunder and disco liberation, Cape Town isn’t staging events – it’s writing a syllabus on how public space can still blow your mind. Taxi jockeys will hum Mafikizolo, DJs will debate scrums, and by Sunday the Liesbeek will sparkle with biodegradable glitter heading for the sea. Arrive curious, leave rewritten.
Cape Town is packed with diverse events! On December 16th, Greenmarket Square hosts Reconciliation Day celebrations with massive music and cultural performances. December 17th features a rugby game at DHL Stadium followed by the futuristic queer celebration, TropicalDisko, at Cape Town High. Throughout the week, you can also find secret jazz clubs, eco-protests, and various micro-festivals.
Greenmarket Square transforms into a vibrant cultural hub from 3 PM to 10 PM. Expect a 15,000-watt sound system, food trucks, and a circular stage. Performers include Loukmaan Adams with a ghoema-punk act, and a musical journey featuring Mafikizolo, Alistair Izobell, Robin Pieters, and Black Ties. There will also be a unique ‘Drink, scan, plant’ initiative where scanning your bio-cup triggers the planting of a spekboom cutting.
Saturday, December 17th, kicks off with a rugby match between the Stormers and the Lions at DHL Stadium. Expect an electric atmosphere with 42,000 fans, and don’t miss the 4K halo screen debuting rugby’s first “territory xG.” Later, from 11 AM to 11 PM, Cape Town High hosts TropicalDisko, a queer celebration featuring diverse music, art, and a safe space blueprint. Your match ticket wrist-stamp also grants you access to six CBD clubs after 8 PM.
TropicalDisko is a 12-hour queer celebration happening on December 17th from 11 AM to 11 PM at Cape Town High in Gardens. This event transforms a 1905 Victorian school into a futuristic party, with wrought-iron balconies becoming catwalks and the art room a vogue academy. The line-up includes Tara Dey, 3Divas, Hamburg’s Giz, and Queezy. It emphasizes a safe space with gender-neutral loos, therapy dogs, and HIV/Mpox testing.
Beyond the main events, Cape Town offers hidden gems like sunrise raves on Clifton 3rd (Wednesday 6 AM), 1920s jazz pop-ups at Artscape (Thursday 7 PM), and a river protest float down the Liesbeek (Friday 3 PM). For food, try “Koesister Queen” for naartjie-injected minis, DHL Stadium’s “Scrum-Bunny” for lamb curry with onion rings, and TropicalDisko’s Kind Kitchen for mushroom “calamari” and buchu gin slushies.
Utilize MyCiTi day-passes for R35, operating from 5 AM to 11:30 PM. For Reconciliation Day, be aware of road closures around Greenmarket Square and aim for the Golden Acre rooftop for rideshares. For the rugby, free MyCiTi shuttles run from Civic Centre, CTICC, and Thibault. Download “Namola” for emergency help. Remember to pack a windbreaker for the wind, and Stage 2 blackouts are unlikely before 8 PM, with venues using generators.
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