Get to The Durban July

Everyone has worn either an outrageous outfit or won an outrageous amount betting on the horses.

The usually casual style of Durbanites is traded in for haute couture, hats and high spirits on this one day of the year and the effect is intoxicating. The excitement builds perceptibly between races and nothing quite compares to standing on the side of the track as a rumble of race horses, sleek and shining, streaks past in a blur of competition and colour. The main race itself is as electrifying as any Springbok test match and the level of emotion packed into those fleeting minutes is quite heady.


There are two ways to experience the July. Either you can base yourself at a picnic site or simply go in on an entrance ticket and float around from site to site. If you cannot find a picnic site (they are booked months in advance), floating around is not half as bad as it sounds. You are bound to run into many, many people you have not seen in ages and they will inevitably invite you to have a drink or a few snacks.

Fashion is part of the July's attraction as most people lose their daily concern with looking presentable and try, instead, to look like a Vogue fashion feature complete with feathers and clashing colours. The effect is spectacular and a feast for the eyes. Everywhere you look both men and women either look fabulous or have made a huge faux-pas.

 
The best thing about the July is that anything goes and no one will look down on you regardless of what you are wearing, even if it is the same thing as two years ago, with an added umbrealla or hat or fascinator! So, if you find yourself in Durban on 31 July 2010, don your daring-most duds and come to the races, darling.