Coffeebeans Routes

Includes: Ital snacks, entrance fees.
Highlights: reggae storyteller, meet the Rastafarian leaders of the Marcus Garvey community, dance at a township dancehall

Tour programme:

Part 1. Collection at accommodation.
Part 2. Introduction to reggae and Rasta, with our resident reggae storyteller, with Ital (Rastafarian, vegetarian) snacks.
Part 3. Visit to Marcus Garvey community for dancehall session

Tour in detail

Reggae has deep roots in Cape Town. It has been the music of political dissent. It has been the music of party-going pleasure. The songs of icons like Bob Marley and Peter Tosh still resonate strongly with our struggles. The writings of Marcus Garvey continue to provide inspiration.

On this Friday night journey, we discover more about reggae and Rastafarian culture in Cape Town. We start at our meeting point and move to our reggae storyteller for stories about reggae and some Ital Rastafarian snacks. Alan lived in Jamaica at the time that reggae was becoming a worldwide phenomenon. He knew all the pioneering figures, and is full of stories of the characters behind the music. This is a visit you would not be able to make anywhere else in the world.

From there we will move across the city to the Marcus Garvey dancehall in Philippi. The community of Marcus Garvey (the area is named after the great writer and thinker Marcus Garvey) is a Rastafarian community. Every Friday night is Dancehall night in Marcus Garvey, and Rastafarian communities from all over Cape Town come together for a classic late night reggae dance session. It's like nothing you have ever experienced before, unless you were around in Kingston in the 70s. It is easy going and easily the best party on a Friday night in Cape Town.

Before entering the Dancehall, we meet some of the elders of the Marcus Garvey community, who provide us a little bit of background to the area and the dancehall, and some insight into Rasta as a form of expression.

After the dancehall session, we return to our meeting point, having danced, eaten, listened and taken a deep breath of reggae.

**Please not that this itinerary is subject to change. Sometimes instead of meeting Alan, we will meet a local reggae artist. If the tour happens on any other night than a Friday night, there is no dancehall session. Can also be arranged as a daytime tour.