First Thursdays Cape Town: Your Guide to the City After Dark

On the first Thursday of every month in Cape Town, galleries, restaurants, bars, and creative spaces across the inner city throw their doors open after dark – free, self-guided, and open to everyone. No tickets, wristbands, or agenda. Just street food, world-class art, live jazz, DJs on the pavement, and a little dancing thrown in. For guests at Pullman Cape Town, it all starts on your doorstep.

How the Streets Work

Cape Town’s CBD is laid out in a simple grid, which makes First Thursdays easy to navigate on foot.

Bree Street and Loop Street are the twin spines of the evening, running parallel through the heart of the city.

Shortmarket Street and Church Street cut across them, connecting galleries, bars, and restaurants.

Wale Street runs along the southern edge of the action and leads toward the Secret Gin Bar and the top of Bree – a strip of beautiful heritage buildings that feels more like a European quarter than a South African city centre.

Harrington Street sits in the East City and is best reached by taxi – rawer, more underground, and covered in some of the city’s most impressive street murals.

Kloof Street is just a short walk from the top of Bree and worth it for a different, more relaxed crowd.

Get There Early

This is the most important piece of advice – by 8pm, many of the galleries are already closing. Arrive between 5pm and 6pm while the spaces are uncrowded. The city eases you in gently at this hour, and the galleries are at their best before the streets fill up.

The Art

With over 20 galleries open on any given First Thursdays, art overwhelm is real. Before you go, check the First Thursdays social media pages for that month’s programme and pick one exhibition that excites you. Make it your anchor and let everything else happen around it.

Gallery F at number 78 Shortmarket is a consistent highlight for fine art photography and mixed media, and The Old World next door is a wonderfully eccentric antique store that stays open late, with vintage cameras, old globes, oil paintings, and curiosities you’ll immediately want to take home.

Ultraviolet Gallery at number 70 Shortmarket is a dedicated photography gallery, showing single-edition works by some of South Africa’s most exciting lens-based artists – every piece printed once and never reproduced.

WORLDART at the corner of Long and Shortmarket is the home of contemporary urban art in the African diaspora, consistently one of the most energetic spaces on the route.

On Church Street, Eclectica Contemporary at number 56 champions diverse and underrepresented voices in South African contemporary art. The Cape Gallery at number 60 is one of the city’s most established spaces for painting and sculpture, and SMAC at number 25 and the Association for Visual Arts Gallery at number 35, between them, cover everything from large-scale solo exhibitions to ambitious group shows.

On Loop, EBONY/CURATED at number 67 focuses on emerging African artists, 99 Loop Gallery at number 99 regularly hosts group shows and solo exhibitions across media, and Caroline Gibello Photography at number 65 opens as an intimate open studio.

Youngblood Africa at 70–72 Bree has springboarded the careers of a generation of local artists.

Vela Projects at 66 Plein Street is a fine art gallery in a 19th-century building championing local contemporary artists since 2022 and consistently worth the detour.

The Food

First Thursdays is as much a food experience as it is an art one. The best approach is to graze – start with a slice at Pizza Shed on Bree before the queues build, pick up street food from vendors as the evening gets going, and save room for a proper sit-down later. The streets offer everything from ostrich kebabs and grilled meats to tequila shots – eat as you walk and follow your nose.

Neighbourgood pulls together the best of Cape Town’s street food culture under one roof alongside boutique pop-ups and local artisan stalls, and is worth building time around.

Clarke’s Bar & Dining Room at 133 Bree is the burger institution of First Thursdays – order the sweet potato chips.

Gypsy Rabbit at 110 Bree brings shisanyama soul food to the strip, including grilled meats, bold cocktails, and a community energy straight from South Africa’s township dining tradition.

The Fashion, Thrifting & Creativity

True Grit Market at Heritage Square is the First Thursdays fashion market, offering vintage clothing, thrifted gems, and independent jewellery makers all in one of the city’s most characterful courtyards. Outside, a DJ keeps the energy up, making this corner of Bree Street one of the liveliest spots of the evening.

CHIMI on Shortmarket is worth a look for eyewear, and The Corner Store on Bree is the kind of independent shop that makes you wish you had packed a lighter suitcase.

If you want to be part of the buzz but channel it into something creative, Clay Café in the City is a ceramic painting studio and tapas bar open until 10pm.

For something altogether more contemplative, St George’s Cathedral on Wale Street opens its doors from 5pm to 8pm with a programme of live performances throughout the evening – one of Cape Town’s most beautiful and historically layered buildings, and a moving experience in the middle of a night out.

The Bars

The drink offerings at First Thursdays are as diverse as the food.

Start at Aperitif at 227 Bree – a cobblestone veranda and rustic indoor courtyard serving seasonal cocktails, including a Limoncello Spritz that tastes exactly like a warm Italian evening.

Further down Bree, Leo’s Wine Bar is tucked inside a bagel shop, pouring natural wines from smaller South African producers – most people end up on the kerb outside, which is entirely the point.

On Wale Street, Openwine is an Italian-owned wine bar that makes you want to move to Cape Town – a bar, a lounge, and a cellar full of South African boutique wines, a legendary cheese plate, and live jazz drifting out from inside while the pavement fills up.

The Secret Gin Bar, also on Wale, is tucked away and easy to miss – over 100 gins, a Bubbly Bar, and open from 3pm on First Thursdays.

Harrington Street & The East City

Harrington Street is best reached by Uber and is worth the trip. The walls here are covered in large-scale street art, including a famous 400-square-metre mural by Belgian artist Bart Smeets.

Number 61 is home to a collection of venues under one roof: Harringtons Cocktail Lounge, Surfa Rosa dive bar, and District nightclub, open from 5pm to 2am and covering every mood, from refined to raucous.

Outside Destiny nearby, the party spills onto the street itself – DJs, dancing, and a crowd that has no intention of going home.

Kloof Street, Park Road & The Longkloof District

Kloof Street is just a short walk from the top of Bree and immediately feels like a different Cape Town – more neighbourhood, less event.

Follow it down and it leads naturally into Park Road and the Longkloof district, a creative pocket that rewards slow exploration. Independent brands, boutique studios, cafés, and restaurants cluster together here in a way that is worlds away from the bustle of downtown.

Ogūn, Ballo, Rosey & Vittori, and Rowdy Bags are all open late for browsing, Café Sofi and Custodian Pastry Bar are ideal for a coffee or something sweet, and Hope Distillery brings craft spirits to the mix.

Vine & Dandy is the spot for a laid-back glass of wine between shops. Come here to wind down, shop local, and let the evening finish itself.

The Dancing

As the galleries close and the street energy peaks, Shortmarket Street becomes the beating heart of the evening.

The House of Machines at number 84 is the natural pivot point – a Cape Town institution that blends coffee, cocktails, motorcycles, and live music into something that shouldn’t work but absolutely does.

As mentioned, next door, Destiny is where the music spills out onto the street – DJs pumping and a party energy that builds as the night goes on.

You don’t need a plan at this point. Just follow the music.

A Few Tips

• Book dinner well in advance – the best tables go fast.
• Wear comfortable shoes; you will cover more ground than you expect.
• Keep your bag zipped and stay aware of your surroundings, especially on the quieter side streets as the night gets later.
• Follow First Thursdays Cape Town on social media for monthly updates – pop-ups and participating venues change every month, and the best discoveries are rarely the ones you planned.

Plan Your Stay Around First Thursdays

First Thursdays happens once a month. It is absolutely worth planning your stay at Pullman Cape Town around it.