South Africa Celebrates Festival of Dwarves

The annual Dwergie Fees is dedicated to Org Smal, actor, who appeared in South African television series Arendse and star of 80's show "Zet." He organized the first Dwergie Fees in 1989. There were about 65,000 attendees.

The purpose of the festival is to bring dwarves together, "giving them their moment to shine, telling them to be proud of what they are rather than ashamed."

A blog post on Viceland Today describe the author's experience when visiting the festival held in Standerton this year:

"The festival kicked off on Saturday with a procession through town. For the many people who’d brought their customized vintage hot rods and bikes to the fest it was an opportunity to rev their engines and hoot their hooters. For tractor drivers it was an opportunity for them to participate in one of the few earthly activities in which a tractor is a welcome addition. The family of Org Smal, the legendary dwergie to whom the festival is dedicated, ride on top of a trailer, pulled by a tractor, which resembles the kind of transport one would be sent to a concentration camp in. The procession is strange, and gets wide-eyed stairs from the Standertonians. But if the masses looked suspicious it wasn’t due to any fundamental mistrust of abnormal folk. There simply weren’t enough dwarves to make the purpose of the procession evident. The locals were probably wondering why on earth a couple dozen dwergies were running rampant on hot rods and tractors down the main street. It’s nightmarish stuff."









Read more and find more photos on Viceland Today...