Val is a tiny place with a big history. It has a permanent population of eight. The Easter weekend was chosen for the 2024 Boer and Brit Day festivities. This annual cultural festival of all things Boer and British circa 1900 is the brainchild of Rita Britz who owns the Val Hotel and most other old properties in the small town.
Val Hotel (Kathy Munro)
The small hamlet of Val comes alive once a year when it hosts its unique Boer and Brit Day. The event has been on the calendar for Boer War history buffs since 2007. Rita’s efforts are strongly backed by military historian and Johannesburg lawyer David Scholtz. The festival takes place in late March or early April as it was in April 1902 that Val earned a unique place in South African history (read on to find out why).
The main railway line runs through the town and the dominant structures on the landscape are the giant grain silos. Surprisingly a train on its way to the coast rumbles through. It is the proverbial one-horse town, but not on its day of celebration when the farmers and their families arrive on horseback in their four by fours, towing horseboxes and farm trucks. Word has spread and a few hundred people gather to enjoy a festival and fair on an autumn day in the...
