English on 96.5 FM Stereo exclusively to Ficksburg. The BBC World Service radio station broadcasts from London 24 hours per day on 90.2 FM Stereo. Coats of arms Municipal (1) By 1931, the Ficksburg municipal council had assumed a pseudo-heraldic coat of arms. The shield was divided in two, the upper half depicting the Roman goddess Ceres holding a torch above her head, in a landscape setting, and the lower half depicting a maize cob and three ears of wheat on a blue background. The motto was Virtus in arduis. Municipal (2) The council registered a new, and heraldically better, design with the Orange Free State Provincial Administration in June 1967 and at the Bureau of Heraldry in September 1969. The new arms were: Per chevron Gules and Or, in chief two garbs Or and in base a cross humette Vert; on a chief Or two sprigs of cherry fructed proper. In layman's terms, the shield displayed a golden chevron (bearing two sprigs of cherry) between two golden wheatsheaves on a red background (above) and a green cross on a gold background (below). The crest was an arm holding a torch, issuing from a golden mural crown. The motto remained Virtus in arduis. Ficksburg Cherry Festival Ficksburg is known in South Africa as the Cherry Town and the Cherry Capital of the world. The festival is arguably the oldest crop festival in South Africa. The Ficksburg Cherry Festival happens during the third week of November annually. It takes place in November every year. The festival has been held for over 45 consecutive years and the festival continues to grow each year. The festival attracts almosta 30,000 visitors each year and plays an integral role in tourism as it creates employment and is the small town's largest marketing tool. The event has benefited the town in profits of over R15 million annually through food, accommodation, shopping, and entertainment. The early traditional events of the festival included a street parade, a festive Cherry Ball and the crowning of the Cherry Queen, however, events have changed over time. History of cherry farming in the area Harry Pickston contacted German missionaries in South Africa enquiring about growing cherries in the country for the first time. In the year 1905, a year after Harry Pickston had enquired about cherries, the first cherry trees were planted in South Africa on the farm 'Platkop' in the Clocolan