Elderly Benefit from Bike Rally

The annual Kratzplatz Run started on Friday June 11th at Barrels, coinciding nicely with the first Fifa World Cup game. Barrels was busy all weekend with locals and visitors, mainly bikers from all over Namibia and South Africa. Their aim was to raise money for the elderly in two Luderitz age old homes, Helpende Hand and Hermiene Offenhaus.
The main attractions at Barrels were the five live musical acts that played throughout the weekend. It started with the famous Brian Finch on Friday night after the South Africa vs Mexico soccer game. Only one performer, Zirk Jansen couldn’t make it and was replaced by Koos Van Zyl. Aside from Brian Finch and Koos Van Zyl, Paul Herbst, Slapstick and Streettalk also performed.
Entrance was N$30 on Friday and Saturday, and a donation bucket was passed around on Friday to raise money for the old age homes. Food at a reasonable price was also provided by Protea Hotel in the breakfast room at Kratzplatz.
The performers played late into the night on Friday, in spite of this everyone was up early on Saturday to witness or take part in the mass ride to the old age homes to hand over the donations, which were given directly to the pensioners. Nachtigall Street was closed off in the morning so the motorbikes could be shown off by their owners; this display was followed by a gathering in Kratzplatz courtyard where the drinking commenced. Food was available again all day and night, as well as printed t-shirts, piercings and even tattoos.
As soon as the South Africa vs France rugby match ended (in which South Africa were victorious), the live music once again kicked off the evening party this time starting with ‘Slapstick’ who were very entertaining, playing a few classics like ‘Mustang Sally’ and ‘Summer of ‘69’.
The whole weekend was really good fun, and brought a lot of visitors to the town as well as raising N$7500.00 for old people in Luderitz- overall it was very successful. Next year’s Kratzplatz Run starts on June 10th 2011.•