Ficksburg, after Bethlehem, South Africa (the chief administrative town) is the second busiest and important town in the Eastern Free State region of the Freestate province. Its an important agricultural region of the Free State where crops like corn and mealies (maize) are grown. The most important part of the annual crop of Ficksburg is the harvesting of the cherries on the numerous cherry farms surrounding the town. The cherries are harvested from October to December. Annually in November the Cherry Festival is held. The festival stretches over 3 days and attracts up to 30,000 people. The festival presents quality family shows and activities like the herding of sheep, horse rides, camel rides, helicopter flips, steam train rides at Sandstone Estate, tours through town to see the beautiful sandstone building architecture which Ficksburg is also very well known for. There are also tours of the surrounding countryside, tours to the cherry and asparagus farms where people are shown everything about the industry, and airplane trips to the Katsedam in Lesotho.

Ficksburg is known as 'The Gateway to the Mountain Kingdom Of Lesotho'. Lesotho is an enclaved country in the eastern part of South Africa. From Ficksburg you can depart to the Katse Dam in Lesotho. This dam is important to South Africa, because it annually provides hundreds of millions of litres of water to the industrial and commercial Gauteng Province. The dam is also a very scenic area and is situated 3000m (9842ft) high up in the Maluti Mountains of Lesotho. The dam is very popular for boating and fishing and is visited by thousands of tourists to Lesotho every year which have to pass through Ficksburg.

Wikipedia articles for Ficksburg

• Maputsoe / Ficksburg Bridge border crossing
• Ficksburg
• Maputsoe
• Khomokhoana