Golden week—the ultimate symbol of the so-called “party capital” of South Africa. For the first week of the second semester, Stellenbosch (Stellies) students swarm the streets to complete the challenge of going to a bar or club every day for seven consecutive days. The catch is, to fully complete it, you also have to attend every single lecture—no 8 am exceptions.
A common mentality in Stellies is that after a big night out, there’s no way you’re making it to morning classes. And when the alternative is a wine farm on a Tuesday afternoon, few students would choose a graveyard shift lecture from 4 pm – 5 pm instead.
Golden Week kicked off on Monday with The Art Department’s fourth and final event of 2025, where over a thousand people packed into the town hall to enjoy the house music. Kunjani Events, a student-founded organisation, hosted the first of many open-air experiences, where Afro-house and Afro-tech brought the people what they needed—“rhythm, soul and connection” as per the Kunjani event description. These standout events, along with the revamped Fool’s Gold Social Bar, took Golden Week 2025 to a whole new level.
Although the lines outside clubs during Golden Week are enough to sober you up, digs jols often come to the rescue. Only in Stellenbosch would it be acceptable to go to Casa Cerveza in onesies and slippers after the Union House pyjama-themed digs jol. Alternatively, many first-year students chose to start queuing for De Lapa at 3pm—over an hour before it even opened.
The lines were definitely intensified by the fact that so many University of Cape Town (UCT) students stayed in Stellies for the week since their lectures only started the following Monday. It’s also come to many students’ attention that clubs are inclined to make you wait despite there being ample space inside—this is often for perception, control and marketing.
So, between the endless queues and the notorious Golden Week flu that hits everyone the following week, what’s actually the point? Simply put: to say you’ve done it. It’s also the perfect chance to catch up with bouncers who know you by name (and of course, your friends) after the six-week holiday.
By the end, the general consensus is that it’s worth doing at least once—even if it means falling a week behind in lectures and letting “viruses celebrate Golden Week the way first years do.”
By Holly Clowes
