Cape Town Carnival
The Cape Town Carnival is an annual street festival in Cape Town.
NB: Not to be confused with the Cape Minstrel Carnival.
The Carnival
Also referred to as the Cape Carnival in some sources, this is an annual event that takes place during March of every year and includes an extravagant parade of costumed performers, musicians and moving floats, organized to celebrate the Cape's African identity with its diverse array of communities and cultures.
Inspired by the success of, and the celebratory atmosphere generated by, the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the first annual Cape Town Carnival actually took place on Long Street, Cape Town, in that year, as part of the festivities surrounding the tournament. A 11 000-strong audience attended that first event, which has - since then swelled to attendance figures in excess of 50 000. To accommodate this, the carnival venue has been moved to what is known as the Fan Walk in Green Point, to allow for increasing opportunities for creative expression, job creation, skills development, social cohesion and economic development.
The event is operated by a non-profit trust and - according to its website - it aims to create an environment of social cohesion where tourists and locals can experience the glamour and creativity of the Cape Town Carnival throughout the year.
Among its other, more functional, aims are also:
to provide opportunities for community participation in arts and culture and
to serve as a significant hub for the clothing, costume and set-building industries in the Western Cape and create employment and training opportunities in costume, float design and production as well as large event logistics.
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