About

THE STORY

FROM AN ACORN TO A WONDEROUS TREE

Concerts in the Park began 12 years ago with the vision to bring people of all colours, religions and walks of life together to collectively enjoy some of the best musical artists South Africa has to offer. This unique event is held in Cape Town’s wonderful Victorian De Waal Park where artists play in the historic bandstand.

Concerts in the Park is focused on nation-building with the aim of bringing joy to people’s lives through accessible concerts. It also encourages the community as a whole to use and enjoy their public parks.

Concerts in the Park Founder, Charles Lindsay-Bowman, was vice chairman of a Park association and was involved with the City Council Parks in making De Waal Park, a wondrous City centre Victorian Park, a safe, serene and beautiful park for all to enjoy. This also included the 1905 Bandstand which had been dormant for years. This is how the planting the Acorn was planted.

With virtually no experience and certainly no pop concert knowledge, Charles registered Concerts in the Park as a non-profit company. Hot Water was the first artist with around 1,000 fans; Prime Circle featured later and brought in 8,000 gregarious visitors from babies to octogenarians. That’s what it’s about. Concerts in the Park is about families and their friends, old and young – sharing a common excitement to experience the very best artists we are blessed with in South Africa.

DE WAAL PARK

De Waal Park was Cape Town’s first and largest public park, after the Company’s Gardens, when it was opened in 1895.

The City Council of Cape Town purchased the land in 1877 from the Van Breda family who owned the farm Oranjezigt. They divided the land into three parts, first building the two smaller reservoirs below Camp Street and then building the Molteno Reservoir below Belvedere Road which also provided the city with electricity. The land in between formed a natural park.

David Christiaan de Waal, who was the city councillor, member of the Legislative Council of the Cape Colony, and later Mayor of Cape Town decided to develop the park. At his instigation, thousands of trees were planted in Cape Town and especially in the park. After further development the park was opened to the public officially in 1895.

In 1899 and 1900 two gates with brick piers and wrought-iron arches were built, as well as a wall along Camp Street, Upper Orange and Molteno Roads, finally closing off the park by planting a hedge of Kei apple.

The Concerts in the Park concert series are staged on the original Edwardian bandstand, which was manufactured by Messrs Walter McFarlane & Co of Glasgow and presented to ‘the corporation’ in Cape Town by the Traders-Market & Exhibition Ltd. London in 1904. It was moved from the original exhibition space in Green Point to De Waal Park some years later.

The Victorian fountain in De Waal Park is a natural artesian well and feeds the Lower Reservoir No. 2 in Oranjezicht.

On 22 March 1968 the park was proclaimed a National Monument to be maintained in perpetuity as public gardens and it is now listed as a Provincial Heritage Site