Over the mountain: Take the high road to Oesfees

How many people like Cape folk music? Everybody. They just don't know it yet.

A small section of the South African population that returns annually to the Oesfees on the Solms-Delta wine farm in Franschhoek can't get enough of the infectious foot-tapping festival.

The harvest festival celebrates Boland culture: the food, the dance and the music. There are wines like Solms-Astor Vastrap to go with traditional Kaapsekos such as chicken and vegetable breyani, snoek en patat, wildspastei (game pie) and bees afval. But the thing that holds the cultural fabric of the place together is the music.

"The festival was founded to say 'thank you' to the farmworkers, but an unintended consequence is its unifying effect," says Mark Solms, owner of the Solms-Delta wine estate and chair of neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town.

"The first festival [eight years ago] was like a social engineering experiment. The farmworkers in the region were invited free of charge, but we also invited the farm owners, many of them Afrikaans, and waited with trepidation to see what would happen. The musicians played goema, Cape jazz, langarm, vastrap and boeremusiek. Both sides of the old apartheid divide were enthused. Everyone ended up dancing together," he says.

"Since then the Oesfees has become the one cultural event on the Boland calendar that celebrates all South Africans. People come from all over - Joburg, Pretoria, Bloem - and then there's the smattering of intelligentsia and literati who proclaim to be there for the significance of the history."

Initially David Kramer was a headlining act. "He worked with us a lot," says Solms.

Now another great South African musician, Adriaan Brand, formerly of the Springbok Nude Girls, is involved. He runs the Music van de Caab project - an extensive heritage and development project that serves the previously disadvantaged of the Cape Winelands.

Like Kramer before him, Brand goes out into the South African outback looking for untapped talent. "He finds marginalised people from the back of nowhere and brings them to come and play," says Solms.

A regular performer at the Oesfees is slide guitar player Hannes Coetzee, who plays with a spoon in his mouth. Coetzee first met Kramer in his hometown, Herbertsdale in the Klein Karoo, in 2000. Since then he's become a world-touring sensation of rural folk music, appearing frequently with Kramer. Now in his 70s, Coetzee's infectious charm and flirtatious sense of humour are irresistible.

Another festival regular is Emo Adams. "Adams carries the banner into the future of Kaapse Klopse music," says Brand. "He casts his musical net so wide that he catches absolutely everyone in it."

Another band, Tribal Echo, "has a knack for getting the vibe of South African people", according to Brand. "They stand on the meaty shoulders of Cape folk music and maak wors," he says.

Also performing are Elvis Blue, Koos Kombuis, Radio Kalahari Band and many more. "The golden thread that holds the bands together is an optimistic vision of South Africa," says Brand. "Music is the conduit of our authentic experience as a nation. The beat is part of our bones, our sinews and tendons. It puts us all in a melting pot of so many different influences."

"South Africa is a mess," adds Solms. "But there are things that are hopeful. This festival is an example of how we should take the high road, rather than descend into the bonfire of the vanities."

• This Saturday. Tickets at Plankton.mobi or at the gate on the day. Gates open 9am, music from 10am to 8pm, see www.solms-delta.co.za, 021-874-3937