The show is being organised by Adele Lucas Promotions (ALP). Says ALP managing director, Adele Lucas: “The Khayelitsha Festival is set to be an annual event creating opportunities for local businesses to expand their horizons and interact with the wider Cape business community.”
Modeled on the highly successful Soweto Festival, now in its fourth year, the Khayelitsha Festival will run over three days and feature a leisure and lifestyle exhibition, a vibrant music programme, fashion shows, arts and crafts, a youth zone, dance, competitions and a host of other activities.
It's said to be the largest event of its kind in the Western Cape, and highlights intergovernmental efforts to promote social cohesion and drive local economic development. The festival is supported both by the Western Cape Provincial Government and the City of Cape Town in association with the Khayelitsha Development Forum.
“We want to use our municipal projects to encourage economic growth, job creation and improved standards of living in this community. This is a festival for all the people,” remarked City of Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille, the keynote speaker at the media launch. She actively encouraged private sector participation in this venture, identifying corporate participation as a key ingredient in the ultimate success of the festival.
The festival will not only attract residents from Khayelitsha, the Cape Flats communities and the Western Cape, but also aims to draw more affluent city and suburban consumers, and tourists keen to visit Khayelitsha and experience the unique community vibe in a vibrant, entertaining, safe setting.
To engage the business industry and allow them to view potential investment opportunities on the other side of the N2, organisers are launching the the Khayelitsha Festival Business Tour. The initiative is sponsored by the City of Cape Town working with the Khayelitsha Development Forum and Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading in Khayelitsha (VPUU) aims at precisely that: exposing greater Cape Town's business people to emerging investment opportunities in the pulsing heart of the emerging Khayelitsha marketplace.
For more information on the festival and activities, visit: http://www.khayelitshafestival.co.za/
