The Vodacom Durban July is known for fillies both equestrian and those fulfilling the obligations of fashion. But i can tell you now, we went for the latter part!
Fashion TV South Africa in conjunction with Peroni run a national competition during the month of May 2008, where a lucky consumer and partner could win a fully expenses paid trip to the Vodacom Durban July if they purchase a Peroni.
A team of 11, included our host Brian Bingham, FTV Cedar Square Owner - Emiliano Casonova, the winner Oliver Morton and FTV Crew: Michelle, Alistair, Costa and myself travelled to Durban on Friday to join South Africa's biggest horse racing event and 60 000 other people too.
The flight to Kzn was fairly quick and we could almost immediately feel the humidity as we flew into the coastal city - off came the fur coats and warm gloves.
We were met at the terminals by a friendly bunch of Durban girls handing out stunning Mango Smoothies to all Joburg visitors!
We were transported to our wonderful hotel - Suncoast Casino & Towers where we unpacked and relaxed for a bit.
Friday night we all went for dinner at the Cape Town Fish Market in Suncoast Hotel, drinks at Cafe Vacca Matta and early in bed to ensure we looked great for our day.
We took our time getting ready... although Michelle and I could not wait to wear our sponsored Pulsate outfits!
At the July, we were shown almost immediately to the Peroni tent by our wonderful hosts and got interviewed by Peroni T.V and Fashion TV.
Well done, Peroni, your tent was breathtakingly beautiful!!!
We filmed in and around the tent for several hours and tried almost everything to overcome the heat that suffocated us all day.
Nothing helped except the Peroni we had..(thank the lord)
Anyway, at around 5pm, Michelle decided that she wanted to watch the Bulls vs The Sharks and....well....it was pretty much a rollercoaster ride from there on out!!
We had no trouble finding a marquee that screened the game - thanks to our earlier introduction to the Shark Magazine tent that played hosts to our wonderful friend Emmanual Castis (kiss kiss)
We decided to make this tent our last stop before we headed over the the Official After Party brought to you by 5FM and Skelter....Many thanks to organizers Gareth and Greg for giving us tickets!
After a couple of Mojitos, Tequilas and snippets from a lady that believed I was a true celebrity, we head over to the DLI Hall....
We had to stand in a que for about 30 minutes - even though we had R1000 tickets! Note FTV Staff also stand in ques....
Never the less, the waiting was worth our while.
Almost immediately we got greeted by 5FM's Gareth Cliff and SABC Presenter Jason Greer, who both were very delighted to see some familiar faces.
It took us a while to find FTV Cedar Square's owner - Emiliano in the Royalty Suite... we did not mind... since we soon realized that some eye batting, R10 notes and the word FTV could almost get us unlimited Sushi all night long :-))
Gareth Cliff ensured that the FTV girls stayed in party mode by giving us non stop tequilas which did not go off too well with the sushi we had which resulted that at 12am we left the craziest after party to head off to dream land.
This was truely one of the most memorable weekends i had in a while.
A special thanks to the following sponsors:
Peroni for sponsoring our entire trip
Pulsate for dressing Michelle and I!
See you all next year!
