The Adderley Street Lights Festival switch-on ceremony is taking place this weekend; the city has ramped up security for the 80,000 guests and organised late buses too!
Cape Town, South Africa (24 November 2022) – For the first time since the pandemic, the Cape Town festive lights on Adderley Street will be back, lighting up the streets of the city and spreading festive cheer.
Every year, the lights bring thousands of people to the city. This year will once again be marked by a celebration festival where the lights will officially be switched on. The event is always free to the public and a highly anticipated one on the festive calendar.
The city has shared that they have got security in place to keep members of the public safe. They estimate that around 80,000 people will be attending the event.
‘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.
The thirteen gates will open at 13:00 and everyone will be searched before being allowed into the event area. Anyone with prohibited items will be turned away. Prohibited items include: Weapons, Alcohol, Drugs, Glass, Hookah Pipes, Fireworks, Umbrellas and Gazebos, and Gas spray cans or any other corrosive.
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.
As for entertainment, Grammy nominated, 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.
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To make sure everyone can get home safely, the MyCiti buses will run later than usual. You can find a full breakdown of each of the bus routes here along with what time the last buses will leave the city depot.
The Festive Lights Switch-On 2022 is FREE for all. No ticket is required. Event details are below:
Date: Sunday 27 November 2022
Venue: Grand Parade, Cape Town
Time: 16:00 – 22:00
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