Mossel Bay is FHM's first small town of the year

1 Dec 2004

Mossel Bay is the best town in South Africa to spend a weekend and Prieska the worst. Crowned as the FHM Small Town of the Year, brought to you by Firestone, Mossel Bay was selected from 11 towns nationally ranked according to FHM's criteria of scenery, the locals, the babes and the jol.

Mossel Bay's top score of 84% narrowly beat Hazyview in Mpumalanga (83.5%) and Bethlehem in the Free State (79%) into second and third place respectively. The best small town winner recorded the highest scores for babes (90%) and locals (87%), whilst Hazyview was ranked as the best place to jol (90%). Port St. Johns (90%) emerged as the most scenic small town.

Commenting on FHM's Small Town of the Year, editor Brendan Cooper said: "Mossel Bay is a town that has pretty much a bit of everything in it. It's a tight party venue, crawling with young lovelies." Hagen Engler, the magazine's assistant editor, adjudged it the winner due to its "endless supply of babes, extreme sports activities, small but rocking nightlife, rustic harbour side and the warm hospitality of the locals". The town rated 90% for its women; 83% for its party action; 87% for the friendliness of the locals and 75% for its scenic splendours.

"We saw 'Small Town' as an opportunity to ignite reader interaction outside of the main centres", comments Cooper. "The initiative proved to be spot on as readers from all over the country started bombarding FHM's offices with requests and invitations to visit their region".

The year-long promotion was also one of the longest sponsorship campaigns executed for a client in the magazine's history according to publishing director Louis Eksteen.

FHM Small Town of the Year brought to you by Firestone culminated in a signature FHM party in Mossel Bay on Saturday 27 November where town officials received the inaugural trophy. More than 350 people from as far afield as Oudshoorn and George attended the event which was DJ'd by Roger Goode as part of a live 5FM broadcast from the Garden Route town.

The quest to decide FHM's Small Town of the Year, brought to you by Firestone was undertaken by Engler, and photographer Marc Shoul, who spent one weekend per month travelling through South Africa visiting remote places in search of the most appealing small town experience. On arrival, they set out asking locals where the best place was to jol, to get a beer, and to find the prettiest girls in town. Each town's Firestone dealer was roped in to show the FHM team the scenery.