The City of Cape Town’s flagship Festive Lights Switch-On event makes a grand return this Sunday 27 November 2022 after a two-year pandemic enforced hiatus. The City would like to outline measures in place, including safety requirements to ensure a successful event. Read more below:
Festive Lights Switch-On is anticipating upwards of 80 000 attendees on the Grand Parade and Adderley Street for the first event since 2019.
Fresh off his first-ever Grammy nomination, multi-award winning musician Zakes Bantwini will anchor an all-star line-up which also includes Mi Casa, Emo Adams, Will Linley, Abavuki, Sasha-Lee and more for the free open-air concert.
In its five-decade history, the Festive Lights Switch-On event has always been a family-focused occasion where loved ones can celebrate and have fun in a safe environment.
For the City, safety remains a priority for this year’s event and measures will be put in place to ensure the thousands in attendance can enjoy the evening without incident.
‘We will be deploying our Safety and Security personnel who will work with the South African Police Services as well as private security to ensure that we keep to our promise of safeguarding all the patrons at this family-friendly event. We would like to remind residents and visitors that there will be a zero tolerance of any weapons, alcohol, drugs and other illegal substances at the event. We are aware that in previous years there have been some elements who sought to bring anti-social behaviour to this event and those people must be warned that our personnel on the ground will not hesitate to act swiftly against these actions,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security Alderman JP Smith.
Important notice
Entrance into the festival footprint, through 13 chutes, will open from 13:00 ahead of the event’s start at 16:00.
Patrons will be searched at all entrance chutes and festival attendees found in possession of any prohibited items will be turned away.
Prohibited items include:
· Weapons
· Alcohol
· Drugs
· Glass
· Hookah Pipes
· Fireworks
· Umbrellas and Gazebos
· Gas spray cans or any other corrosive
‘This year’s event is themed “City of Hope” and it’s an opportunity for all of us to celebrate together after a very difficult two-year period. We will be playing our part as the City to ensure these festivities are enjoyable to patrons of all age groups. We would like to appeal to all those who plan on attending to contribute to this spirit of festivities by adhering to the requirements and avoid bringing the above items,’ added Alderman Smith.
The City is again partnering with the KID SMART Project to provide a more sophisticated monitoring system to help reunite any lost children with their parents.
Children will be kitted out with a temporary “SMART” bracelet on arrival at the event, with contact details of their parents. This is not compulsory but on a voluntary basis.
A Lost and Found area will be located in the City Hall on Corporation Street.
There will be water points demarcated in the event footprint including four on the Grand Parade, one in Upper Adderley Street and one on Lower Adderley Street.
Road closures
Residents and visitors are advised that as a result of the event, there will be road closures for set up on Saturday 26 November 2022 and on event day 27 November 2022.
The full list of road closures is available here: http://bit.ly/3EtfsxY
MyCiTi services to Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain during the event with last departure at 22:30 from Civic Centre station
