The street party held in Sea Point’s Regent Road last Saturday is described as a huge success by the organisers, the Regent Road Association and the City of Cape Town.
Greg Lipton, the owner and curator of Art Haus Sea Point, is the spokesperson for the organising association and says they plan to host three street festivals in 2023.
“Thankfully Saturday was another huge success for all involved and pretty much every business on the 750m strip showed their ‘gees’ one way or another, with major enthusiasm and involvement from the residents’ association and the residents too, most attending our festivities,” said Mr Lipton.
The dates for the next event have not been set but Mr Lipton said they are aiming for the end of January or the beginning of February.
“Due to the success of our Freedom Day event earlier this year, and the even bigger turn-out now, we’ve learnt that there are a lot of locals and internationals who love to walk our Sea Point streets while enjoying our delicious cuisine, yummy drinks and amazing vibe, and due to this positive feedback and the support of the City of Cape Town, partners like the Yoyo app and all the businesses on Regent, there definitely is a next time.”
Mr Lipton said although there was one incident of pickpocketing, overall the event was free of criminal incidents.
Nicola Jowell, the councillor for Ward 54, said that no serious offences were reported.
“Every side street from Regent Road had security on it to manage the precinct and the access for residents. There was a large presence of traffic, Metro police and law enforcement throughout the event. The Sea Point CID had also arranged additional security and street cleaning for the event,” Ms Jowell said.
“The Regent Road Precinct Association have come together to drive economic recovery in the precinct post-Covid and negative impacts of load shedding. And these events are just the start of a strategy around placemaking for Regent Road in Sea Point. Well done to the committee for their hard work and dedication in putting a world-class event together,” she said.
•Wikipedia defines placemaking as a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces.