A night of enchantment with
Design Indaba and Madame Zingara

Design Indaba in association with Absa have booked an evening at Madame Zingara on Wednesday 27 February, 2008, to host our Design Indaba international speakers, guests and sponsors.

Cape Town’s Madame Zingara – the eat-see-gasp-laugh “eatertainment” extravaganza – has evolved into a cult phenomenon, with a following that stretches far beyond its home base. Housed in a historic 1920s-era Spiegelpaleis tent, Madame Zingara’s third season continues to enchant, seduce and inspire.

Design Indaba is offering seats to the design fraternity to join us for this magical evening and share a night of dinner-theatre with leading designers from across the globe. This is a unique opportunity to network and mingle with the top creative professionals headlining Design Indaba 2008.

Tables are available with either six or eight seats, or individual tickets can be booked. All proceeds from the event will go towards the Design Indaba Trust, which offers disadvantaged students the opportunity to follow their design dream.

Only 130 seats are available, please book at Lucinda Johannes.
Email: lucinda@interactiveafrica.com or Tel: (021) 465 9966.
Tickets are R375 each, excluding drinks.

To the unintiated Madame Zingara might be simply be described as “dinner theatre” – and there’s nothing new or unusual there. “Oh, it’s so much more,” says co-owner Richard Griffin. “We set out to create magic, a place where people can truly escape for a night – a secret world where there aren’t taxes, traffic, diseases or heartache. People seem to connect with Zingara on an emotional level – it’s a way of life, an attitude.”

South Africa’s Sunday Times Lifestyle describes Madame Zingara as a “slickly-choreographed dinner-theatre concept that sees chefs, waitrons, aerial artists, cabaret performers and assorted thrillmeisters sweep, swoon and fly past diners’ heads, hearts and mouths. It’s one-part Cirque du Soleil and one-part Tod Browning’s 1932 film classic, Freaks, mixed with a healthy lashing of good old-fashioned Cape hospitality.”

Madame Zingara’s jaw-dropping acts include: Brazil’s Ivan Silva and Martin Alvez who perform a drooling strong-man act; the ever-popular larger than life divas, The Tons (Dorothy Engelbrecht, Lilian Khumalo, Stella Magaba and Marguerita Freeks); aerial acts; cabaret and comedy.

DESIGN INDABA 2008
Design Indaba will fortify as the South African Design Week in 2008, with the expo and conference programme running over a week from Saturday 23 February to Friday 29 February 2008.

DESIGN INDABA EXPO
For the fifth time, the Design Indaba Expo will offer a curated commercial platform for South African designers to showcase local goods and services to the global market. Based on the success of the 2007 event, which played host to more than 20 000 visitors, the 2008 event has been extended for an extra day, running from Saturday 23 to Tuesday 26 February, 2008. The Expo will also be even bigger than before with more floor space, a host of new exhibitors and a brand-new dedicated fashion arena with day-long shows and movie festivals.

DESIGN INDABA CONFERENCE
The Design Indaba Conference will run from Wednesday 27 February to Friday 29 February, 2008. Judged the best conference in the world by EIBTM in Barcelona, the conference has played host to luminaries from all over the world since 1995 and been sold out for the past three years.

SPECIALIST INDABAS
Due to demand from delegates and the public to attend the Specialist Indabas, these will run parallel to the Expo on Monday 25 and Tuesday 26 February 2008. These two-hour architecture, fashion and jewellery events feature local and international designers debating the contribution of these creative sectors to the South African economy. Bookings for Specialist Indabas open at Computicket on 14 January 2008.

YOUNG DESIGNERS SIMULCAST
As part of Design Indaba’s ongoing commitment to design education, Design Indaba 2008 will again offer a Young Designers Simulcast, catering to young designers and students under the age of 25. This is a live broadcast from the main plenary session to a second auditorium. Students and young designers will be able to access speakers in short, informal chat sessions during and at the end of the day.

DESIGN INDABA JOURNALISM WORKSHOP
For the first time, Design Indaba is presenting the Design Indaba Journalism Workshop in conjunction with the Design Indaba Expo taking place from February 23 to 26, 2008. New York design critic and assistant professor at Parsons, Susan Yelavich will lead the workshop with the assistance of an international team of acclaimed editors, journalists and writers. The cost is R1500 per person. To apply for participation, please contact Deborah Weber.

For more detailed information about the above activities taking place, and for related high-resolution images, please contact:

Deborah Weber
E-mail: deborah@interactiveafrica.com

Nadine Botha
E-mail: nadine@interactiveafrica.com

Tel: (021) 465 9966
Website: www.designindabaexpo.com