The Tweede Nuwe Jaar Parade organised by the Kaapse Klopse Karnival Association – will see around 20 000 performers march from Chiappini Street, entertaining crowds along the 1,2 km stretch of Somerset Road before heading into the stadium. Both the route and date were decided by the organisers. The City is proud to support this historic annual event, which spectacularly showcases Cape Town’s unique and vibrant culture. The funding allocated to Minstrel events represents the City’s single largest investment in events overall.
The official Tweede Nuwe Jaar celebration is a completely separate event not to be confused with the court application brought by a different minstrel organisation – the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association – related to the CTMCA’s late and incomplete event application for the use of Vygieskraal stadium.
The City has since formally offered to help the CTMCA with Athlone stadium on available mid-week dates in January and a weekend in February. This offer is, of course, subject to CTMCA duly complying with applicable legislation, including those laws that regulate event permitting process and doing business with the City.
On 2 January the City also filed an appeal to a related High Court order, which expects the impossible: to provide a venue that simply isn’t available on the dates requested.
As early as September, the City informed the CTMCA that there is not a single available stadium venue in the whole city during any of the January weekends. They are all either already booked for Klopse events by other associations, or are not suitable for medium-risk SASREA graded events. SAPS applies this risk rating to all Minstrel events which limits the number of suitable public or private venues.
December-January is the busiest time of the year for events, and bookings are made many months, even more than a year in advance for many of these venues. It must be noted that the CTMCA did not act timeously to secure a venue and meet permitting requirements, and instead waited three months before filing an urgent application.
All of this is unrelated to the official Tweede Nuwe Jaar parade set for 5 January.
The street parade is free of charge to the public.
