Ficksburg

Not to be confused with: Vicksburg

Ficksburg is a mountain town of 5,400 people (2011) in Setsoto municipality in Thabo Mofutsanyana. Ficksburg is the second busiest and important town in the Eastern Free State region, after Bethlehem (the chief administrative town).

Understand

Close to the Lesotho border, Ficksburg is between the foot of Imperani Mountain and the banks of the Caledon River.

It is an important agricultural region where crops like corn and mealies (maize) and asparagus are grown. The most important part of the annual crop of Ficksburg is the harvesting of the cherries on the numerous cherry farms surrounding the town. The cherries are harvested from October to December. Annually in November the Cherry Festival is held.

The region is also known as the asparagus region of South Africa. Hundreds of tons of asparagus are harvested from September. Other kinds of fruit like peaches, apricots, cherries and apples are also grown in the region. Livestock is also an important industry in the region. There are numerous dairy farms in the countryside.

• Ficksburg Tourist Information. (updated Apr 2021)

See

• Imperani Mountain
• 1 Pinedene Small Arms Museum, 36 Brand St, ☏ +27 51 933 4301, pinedene.museum@gmail.com. Displays around 500 military firearms, militaria and sporting weapons used throughout South Africa's colonial and twentieth century history. (updated Oct 2018)

Do

• Ficksburg Cherry Festival, 1 Shawground Rd, ☏ +27 51 933 6486. Held in mid-November every year, Ficksburg declares itself to be the "cherry capital of the world". Many cherry farms hold tours during this time and there are live musical performances on stage during the Cherry Festival show. The festival stretches over 3 days and attracts up to 30,000 people. There are family shows and activities like the herding of sheep, horse rides, camel rides, helicopter flips, steam train rides at Sandstone Estate, tours through town to see the sandstone building architecture which Ficksburg is well known for. There are also tours of the surrounding countryside, tours to the cherry and asparagus farms where people are shown everything about the industry, and airplane trips to the Katse Dam in Lesotho. (updated Oct 2018)

Eat

The best restaurant in Ficksburg is Imperani. You can go there with your family or with your friends to have lunch. It is near Ficksburg high School.

Go next

Ficksburg is known as "The Gateway to the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho". From Ficksburg you can depart to the Katse Dam in Lesotho. This dam is important to South Africa, because it annually provides hundreds of millions of litres of water to the industrial and commercial hub of Gauteng Province. The dam is also a very scenic area and is situated 3,000 m (9,842 ft) high up in the Maluti Mountains of Lesotho. The dam is very popular for boating and fishing and is visited by thousands of tourists every year which have to gain access to Lesotho through Ficksburg.