Culture | Uniglobe Northline Travel

Feed your shopping addiction at the Joburg Shopping Festival 30 October 2014 – 2 November 2014

There are just days to go to Africa’s first signature shopping event, and with the festive season just around the corner, everyone is focussing on this great opportunity of getting a head start on the festive season madness.

Gauteng, and with Johannesburg in particular being a hub for the latest lifestyle and fashion trends, receives both domestic and regional inbound visitors, whose primary reason is to shop for both personal and retail resale usage. This festival provides an ideal arena for this purpose and showcases Johannesburg’s shopping as a big city urban lifestyle offering.

Visitors to the Joburg Shopping Festival will be feeding their shopping addiction from 30 October 2014 – 2 November 2014; and will have the opportunity to shop for great deals, promotions and discounts at over 200 retailers spread across two of Johannesburg’s largest shopping malls: Sandton City and Oriental Plaza and its surrounds.

Joburg Shopping Festival has also partnered with around 30 fine hotels in and around Johannesburg where weary shoppers can relax after a long day.

Apart from this amazing opportunity to shop till you drop, there are also fantastic prizes to be won:
Try your luck at Spin ‘n Win. There are tons of instant prizes up for grabs from a Bill Harrop’s hot air balloon ride, a helicopter ride, a Kwalata Lodge luxury game drive, hotel stays, or a four day cruise to Mozambique; to store vouchers, goodies and hundreds of tickets to local tourist attractions such as the Apartheid Museum, Constitution Hill and City Sightseeing bus tours.

Spend R750 or more at a participating retailer and enter on the Spin ‘n Win stands at both malls.
That is not all! Get spotted by the Visa Superhero paying for your purchase at a participating retailer at either mall with your Visa card, and he may just save the day by settling your purchase for you.

And finally, the chance to win one of two Grand Prizes of a R30 000 prepaid Visa card to spend as you wish! Simply spend R200 or more at a participating retailer at either mall and enter at festival stands and entry points at the malls, inside participating retailers (Sandton City only) or with designated Joburg Shopping Festival Ambassadors at Oriental Plaza.

Joburg Shopping Festival, along with partners, Visa, Gauteng Tourism Authority and City of Johannesburg, however see so many more possibilities than just four days of fabulous deals, promotions, giveaways and competitions: eleven young, up and coming designers will be showcasing their talents as part of the Festival launch events scheduled at Sandton City (29 October 2014) and Oriental Plaza (30 October 2014).

Not only will the festival contribute towards job creation and provide a boost to both the retail and tourism sectors in the city, but there is a another fantastic initiative on the go, the Joburg Shopping Festival SMME Project. This project focusses on providing training to SMMEs in order to expose, equip and prepare them for this and future shopping festivals.

This year, 50 young ambassadors have been given the opportunity to learn valuable knowledge and skills about running a business in the SMME sector. Following in the spirit of the Joburg Shopping Festival, the students are all conducting their studies in either fashion or tourism fields.
The Bree Street Corridor in downtown Jozi was selected as the location for this pilot project. Using the skills and knowledge acquired during their training, it was the task of these ambassadors who then engaged with close on 220 traders to provide them with information on the Joburg Shopping Festival which will assist in preparing them for this and subsequent years.

During the actual festival, ambassadors will be on the ground at the malls to assist shoppers and will be manning various festival, competition and information stands; including the manning of blogger booths where bloggers will be able to interact on various social media platforms during the festival.

Joburg Shopping Festival, along with its various partners, foresee an amazing future arising from the initiative. Learnings obtained in the 2014 pilot year will be used to expand the reach of the project, as well as grow retailer participation across Johannesburg in the years to come.

Press Release by Johannesburg Tourism.

Henna has been used for hundreds of years for cosmetic purposes in Africa especially in Egypt, North Africa, and in the Coastal areas which have had arabic influences. Henna tattooing in Muslim wedding is an important ceremony. Young unmarried girls are not allowed to have henna designs. When a woman is getting married then she is decorated so that she can look beautiful for her husband on her wedding night. After marriage she is allowed to apply henna designs to attract her husband’s attention. Bridal henna tattoos usually cover the whole body.

A bride with her tattoos done for her wedding. Picture from the internet.

Henna by itself or with black dye is usually mixed with water, lemon juice or strong tea into a paste that can be applied. The henna is then applied to the skin using a stick or a plastic cone. The henna is then left to dry and then the dry paste on top is brushed or it peels away.

At the coast is where you are likely to get henna tattoo artists. There are two types of tattoos, the henna ones and the piko ones. A piko tattoo is black dye mixed with henna that is applied to the skin. If you are staying with friends you can ask them to recommend somebody. Or you can ask the hotel staff to let you know where the best henna designers are. The locals usually know the best tattoo designers.

It costs around Ksh. 300 – 500 for simple designs on either both your legs or hands. Elaborate designs usually cost more.

We were at the coast and had a chance to try out some designs.