My thoughts (& clichés) on Montagu’s 6th Herb Festival

What happens behind the scenes at Montagu’s 6th Herb Festival? This personal reflection sheds some light on a small-town community, teamwork, changing traditions, unexpected challenges, retiring gnomes, new scarecrows, and the little moments of Montagu magic that make it special.

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For a small town, Montagu has a big heart for community events. One of these is the annual Herb Festival, a fundraising initiative that brings people together to celebrate the plants, stories, and traditions that are part of our shared heritage -  while raising funds for the Montagu Museum.

The festival also honours the legacy of the Herb Project, which began in 1981 with a mission to document and grow 53 medicinal herbs and preserve the traditional knowledge and remedies passed down by the Khoi, the first people to travel through the mountains and valleys around Montagu.

Today, the Herb Festival keeps that spirit alive and reminds us of the rich heritage and herb lore rooted in this beautiful corner of the Klein Karoo.

But beyond the history and the herbs, another story is worth telling: of what happens when a community comes together to keep that heritage alive. 

This year, I once again had the privilege of being close to that process, and it gave me a different perspective on the festival and what it means to the people of Montagu. 

(Of course, there’s a small catch to volunteering in a town like this: once you put your hand up, it’s rarely a once-off affair and your name somehow finds its way into the unofficial volunteer book — and apparently, as far as I can tell, there is no procedure for having it removed.)

The experience, however, has left me with a few thoughts about what the Herb Festival means to Montagu — and why it matters.

Keeping it simple

The instinct with any fundraising event is that bigger is better. But when resources are limited, and a humble small-town museum is at the heart of it, a reality check is sometimes needed. 

Having a vision is one thing; turning it into reality depends on the resources, time, and willing volunteers available on the ground.

So this year, the small committee sat down and simplified the strategy: less is more, with three clear aims — to celebrate our shared heritage, gather and share knowledge, and raise funds for the Montagu Museum.

The result was a more focused programme, without losing the variety that makes the 3-day Herb Festival so special: a pop-up marketplace with 18 exhibitors, 9 speaker sessions, 4 workshops, 4 guided nature walks, 3 chef's demos, 1 movie night, and 7 open gardens.

Teamwork (always) makes the dream work

For any plan to gain traction, you need a committed, enthusiastic team — and plenty of hard graft. Montagu’s volunteer committee truly walked the talk. 

Our lovely group of volunteers got stuck in. (It helps when you have  a chairperson who is really good at delegating.) Portfolios were assigned, subcommittees were formed, and everyone got on with the job at hand.

There was something quite inspirational about watching it all come together.

Nothing stays the same

Small towns differ significantly from big cities when it comes to change.

Simply put, we’re not huge fans of it. 

But times change, and people get older. Nothing brought that home more than the bittersweet news that our Herb Festival mascots — the trio of real-life gnomes who had crept into all our hearts over the past few years — were ‘retiring’ and embarking on a new adventure.

After a fond farewell, it was back to the drawing board.

A new chapter needed a new cast.

The Herb Festival needed new mascot guardians. 

Cue an eclectic group of five scarecrows, discovered by our departing gnomes on their wanderings, who duly took up the baton.

They arrived in Montagu just days before the festival, quietly assumed their posts, and immediately seemed at home — much to everyone's delight. 

The weather report

You can plan for almost anything, but you can’t control the weather.

Day 2 of this year’s Herb Festival brought unseasonal rain, wind, and icy temperatures. Murphy’s Law prevailed, Plan B failed, and we had to pivot quickly to Plan C. (‘n Boer maak altyd ‘n plan.)

As it turned out, fortune favours the brave. Plan C actually worked better than Plan B, and the show went on. 

There are always a few opinions

You can please some people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. 

And no community event would be complete without a few opinions from the sidelines.

With so many moving parts, no event is ever going to be perfect. Things go wrong, cracks occasionally show, and there will always be room for improvement.

So we adopted a simple approach to filter anonymous criticism: “He has a right to criticise; who has a heart to help.”

Constructive, balanced criticism is always worth listening to, and anything that can help make next year’s Herb Festival better is to be taken seriously.

A 3-minute surprise

Montagu’s Herb Festival is, first and foremost, a community event. And what better way to celebrate that than with a flash mob?

At 11h10 on Saturday, a local group of line dancers suddenly had the Herb Fest pop-up marketplace tapping its feet — and reaching for phones to capture the impromptu performance as the ladies danced to Jak de Priester’s ‘Roer jou voete.’

Three minutes of unexpected fun and spontaneity.

Just another little bit of Montagu magic.

And then there’s next year. 

The 7th Montagu Herb Festival is already brewing in the wings, and, as every small-town volunteer knows, there’s always room for another pair of hands.

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Written by Leanne Johnson