GastroBeats, the Singapore food and music festival founded in 2022, will hold its first edition outside Asia in the Mother City in 2027. The choice is backed by a city whose top 30 events contributed more than R5 billion to the local economy[1] last year and drew about 4.1 million people, with just 20 City-supported events creating more than 31,000 jobs.
Visitors also spend heavily when eating out: Food and beverages made up more than 60% of international card spend[2] over the 2025 festive season, while across the Western Cape, international visitors spent nearly R26 billion in 2025, about a quarter of everything South Africa earned from international tourism[3].
Cape Town’s food scene was one of the reasons Time Out named it the Best City in the World for 2025, and behind its plates and stages sits a cultural and creative sector that contributes just under 3% of South Africa’s GDP and supports nearly one million jobs[4], playing to a record 10.48 million international visitors in 2025[5].
GastroBeats, founded by Singapore-based group The Wolfpack Investment Holdings, is coming to put local talent in the spotlight. Five Singaporean restaurants will travel to Cape Town with their own chefs and ingredients, cooking alongside local chefs, food entrepreneurs, artists and musicians in front of thousands of festivalgoers. The exchange then runs the other way: five South African restaurants and vendors will travel to Singapore for GastroBeats’ June festival, taking Cape Town’s food to an Asian audience.
Locally, GastroBeats has partnered with specialist media agency Ivie Media and project management agency The Marching Brand to bring the festival to South Africa.
“We built GastroBeats as the People’s Festival, and we wanted our first chapter outside Asia to be in a city that embodies that same spirit – supporting local culinary businesses and musicians in an incredible outdoor setting – so Cape Town was the obvious choice. South Africa’s food and music culture is one of the most exciting in the world, and we can’t wait to put it side by side with Singapore’s,” says Tyron Swanepoel, Managing Director of The Wolfpack Experiential, creators of GastroBeats.
From Marina Bay to the foot of Table Mountain
GastroBeats was founded in Singapore in 2022 and is held annually with homegrown food vendors, live music, art installations and family entertainment. It grew from 100,000 visitors in its first year to over 569,000 in 2026, with more than 40 food vendors.
GastroBeats South Africa takes that energy and condenses it into four days within the Mother City:
- Thursday and Friday: Networking, curated dining and business programming for Cape Town’s corporate community.
- Weekend: A full festival for families and young adults, with live music, food stalls, a marketplace, kids’ entertainment and fine dining.
- The chef collaboration: Five Singaporean restaurants bring their chefs and ingredients to Cape Town, and five South African restaurants and vendors travel to Singapore for the June festival.
So, what exactly is GastroBeats? Picture a huge open-air food market and a music festival rolled into one. Visitors wander between dozens of stalls run by local chefs and small food businesses, eating their way around the site while bands play on the main stage, with art installations and entertainment for the children in between. It is built for everyone, from families and groups of friends to couples on a night out, which is why it calls itself ‘The People’s Festival’.
Built for South Africa
GastroBeats has always been about the people behind the food and the music. In Singapore this year, the GIGERS programme , a mentorship programme for rising musicians, was run by Sony Music and GastroBuds, a programme for aspiring chefs, was run by The Meatmen Group. Similar programmes are planned for the South African edition, which puts local chefs, vendors and artists in front of thousands of festivalgoers, and in front of an Asian audience that follows the brand.
The launch also aligns with government efforts to grow tourism from Southeast Asia. In February of this year, Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille visited Singapore[6] to attract more Southeast Asian travellers. Singaporean arrivals grew 4.7% in 2025, and Singapore Airlines flies to South Africa 12 times a week[7]. A festival that carries Cape Town’s name back to its core Singapore audience of 18- to 40-year-olds is exactly the kind of cultural bridge that turns curiosity into bookings.
“Cape Town has the visitors, the venues and the appetite. What GastroBeats brings is a proven format that has drawn more than half a million people a year in Singapore, and a global stage for our chefs, vendors and artists. This isn’t an import. It’s a South African festival with an international passport,” says Irina Vlad, Managing Director at Ivie Media.
For more on GastroBeats South Africa, visit https://gastrobeats.co.za
[1] https://www.capetown.gov.za/media-and-news/cape-town-events-deliver-over-r5-billion-for-local-economy/
[2] https://www.yoco.com/za/blog/seasonal-spend-report-1/
[3] https://iol.co.za/news/south-africa/2026-04-21-this-is-how-much-international-visitors-spent-in-2025-in-the-western-cape/
[4] https://trialogueknowledgehub.co.za/handbook-2025-arts-and-culture/
[5] https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/south-africa-targets-tourism-growth-through-investment-connectivity-and-visa-reforms
[6] https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/south-africa-targets-tourism-growth-through-investment-connectivity-and-visa-reforms
[7] https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/south-africa-targets-tourism-growth-through-investment-connectivity-and-visa-reforms
