Annual oxbraai party a huge success this year

Historic farming village Bathurst turned into party central yesterday when thousands of young party carnivores arrived for the annual all-night Oxbraai.

Started 33 years ago to raise funds for tennis courts at the rural Shaw Park country club, Oxbraai now attracts 5000 old school friends from around southern Africa who converge for a day and a night of raucous revelry.

It’s a boozy, bawdy, hockey-jock kind of jol, but there is also a hippy corner for the more arty kids.

Carnival antics in the past included private school old boys setting up a long line of inebriated youths who hold hands and the youth at one end of the queue grabs the electric perimeter fence and the line gets shocked.

Fun-seekers have also arrived with swimming pools in the backs of their bakkies or they truck in lounge suites and patio brollies to add to the spectacle. Francois Vosloo, who pioneered the event in 1982 at Kleinemonde Beach, yesterday said he was amazed when more than 1500 people pitched for the first Oxbraai.

“I thought a thousand people would pitch at most. The local farmers thought I was mad and so I only expected a few hundred.”

Revellers paid R2.50 to get in – and the tennis courts were paid off after the first Oxbraai with only one ox and and six sheep on the spit.

Organisers were caught unawares and had to buy 14 more sheep from a local butchery to feed the hungry hordes.

“It was so successful it became an annual fundraiser for the Shaw Park Country Club,” Vosloo said.

This year, Vosloo said 45 ox hindquarters had been roasted to feed a crowd of 5000.

Youths say that by the time they get their hefty plate of ox meat and one large spud, the importance of food has faded from their minds.

It is the biggest party around. Vosloo said some people had so much fun and games in the dark nooks and crannies of the Bathurst Showgrounds venue he wanted to get shirts made that said: “I am an Oxbraai baby”.

Dylan Murray, 37, who has been attending the Oxbraai since he was five, said some people partied so hard they wanted to walk across the hot coals used for the potjie pots.

“One guy was so vrot (drunk) we had to tie him to a tree to stop him.

The party carries on right through the night.”

Murray said this year’s event featured DJs and live music at five different venues.

Wendy Vosloo, who has been involved since day one, said organising and ensuring the event ran smoothly every year was a real family affair for Shaw Park country club.

“It takes two days of solid preparation to get the food ready. More than 100 people from the club are involved on a voluntary basis.”

Vosloo said the club’s facilities were among the best in the country.

Sello Sello, from Port Elizabeth, said he and his friends had so much fun last year, they were back for more.

“Last year was so awesome we came back with 10 friends this year.”

— davidm@dispatch.co.za with additional reporting by Mike Loewe