Tag Archives: Athlone stadium

Colourful Cape Town in ‘Happy’ music video excellent marketing for our city!

March 26, 2014

Pharrell Williams’ song ‘Happy‘ is infectious, and on the playlist of radio stations like Kfm every day. Now it has been honoured with a unique Cape Town inspired music video, by a team of five local filmmakers, who made it for free, and want it to go viral, and to be seen by as many people as possible (93000 views in the past two days already)! It is fabulous free marketing for Cape Town!

Using the Cape Town World Design Capital 2014 colour yellow as its title page, which will bring it some brownie points, the Cape Town music video captures a 12 hour day. It includes the Sea Point Promenade, Muizenberg beach, Athlone Stadium, a number of township and Cape Flats scenes, colourful Bo-Kaap with minstrels, Charly’s Bakery, with the street art portrait of the late Nelson Mandela across the road, St George’s Mall, and Long Street.

The music video was directed by Shamiel Soni and Tannan Woods, and directed by Nicky Priem. Priem says of the ‘Happy‘ music video, and the reason for making it: ‘We are the most amazing city in the world. I think it was important for us to showcase the Mother City’s diversity and beautiful people. We all love the song and the message it portrays and I think the video helps unite our City. It gave us an Continue reading →

World Design Capital 2014 Gala Dinner not reflective of Cape Town design excellence!

March 2, 2014

This is one of the hardest blogposts I have written, with a moral dilemma of being an invited guest at what one expected to be a social highlight for the year. The Gala Dinner for Cape Town hosting World Design Capital 2014 turned out to be an embarrassment in poor organisation and food! We trust that Cape Town Design NPC, the company operating the year-long design accolade, will forgive its frankness.

The Gala Dinner was the first substantial function organised for World Design Capital 2014, the New Year’s Eve concert having been an event shared with the City of Cape Town, and was intended to be for all the people of Cape Town. Only 270 guests were invited to the Gala Dinner, and included Cape Town Mayor de Lille and Stellenbosch Mayor Conrad Sidego; Minister of Science and Technology Derek Hanekom; sponsor company representatives such as Media24 Chairman Ton Vosloo; members of the diplomatic corps; top designers; members of the Board of Cape Town Design NPC; and a large media contingent, both local and international. Given the calibre of the guests, the fact that almost everything was wrong with the evening was an embarrassing disaster! The dress code was formal with a touch of yellow, given the World Design Capital 2014 colour for the year. The men seemed better in adding the yellow touches via gold or yellow ties and bow ties, while the ladies struggled to find something yellow in their wardrobes, including Cape Town Design NPC CEO Alayne Reesberg. Surprising was how many guests wore jeans and open shirts, despite the dress code specification.

The dinner was set up in a temporary structure for the Guild Fair, the decor exhibition which is running in conjunction with the Cape Town Art Fair at The Lookout in the V&A Waterfront. Tables seating 20 guests each were set up in long rows, with no decor other than sets of three yellow/gold Monkeybiz beaded animals on the tables. The last time I was in the neighbouring The Lookout venue was for the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards in November, and the New Media Publishing team had done a fantastic job in decorating the massive venue. On Friday night there were no design features at all, and lighting was big industrial spotlights, Continue reading →

African Nations Championship (CHAN 2014) soccer tournament kicks off in Cape Town today, a non-event?!

January 11, 2014

The 2014 African Nations Championship, referred to as CHAN 2014, kicks off at Cape Town Stadium today, with few tickets sold, and a scandal surrounding South Africa Football Association (SAFA) Cape Town Vice President Vernon Seymour.

CHAN 2014 is the first international soccer tournament to be held at the Cape Town Stadium since the 2010 World Cup. Sixteen African teams will participate in 32 matches across the country, playing matches at stadia in Cape Town (including Athlone Stadium), Bloemfontein and in Polokwane. The tournament theme is ‘Celebrating Africa’s Home Champions’.

The African Nations Championship will commence with the Opening Ceremony at 16h00 today, which includes performances by Jimmy Dludlu, The Soil, Mi Casa, and Zolani Mkhiva. The New Age reports that more than 300 dancers and models will form part of the Opening Ceremony At 18h00 the first match of the tournament kicks off, with local team Bafana Bafana playing Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 23/24 December

December 24, 2013

Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

* The wing of a BA plane with 182 passengers on board, rolling to the runway to London, hit a building at OR Thambo airport in Johannesburg when the pilot allegedly did not follow the instructions re the runway to use.

* The City of Cape Town and the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association with the Kaapse Klopse Karneval Association have met and have agreed that the associations will organise their own event in 2015. The City of Cape Town will assist with minstrel competitions held at Athlone Stadium, Florida Park, Vygieskraal, and Delft. The minstrels will march in Cape Town today, on New Year’s Eve, and on 4 January.

* The V&A Waterfront has completed a R 140 million upgrade, adding Pick ‘n Pay’s Western Cape flagship store now 6500 m² in size; created parking on the same level, having linked two different parking garages; and added 1400 m² upstairs by connecting two passages, expanding the size of Edgars, and adding four new shops. Its CEO David Green says that there was little disruption to the operation of the mall, but many customers, including ourselves, have expressed their annoyance at shopping on a building site for nine months. On average they receive 60000 visitors every day, but they have had days of double that number (we question how they measure the visitors, not having an electronic car counter as they had in early days).

* Justine Sacco, who achieved notoriety in writing the ‘worst Tweet of 2013‘, appears to be on holiday in Cape Town Continue reading →

WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

Blog about Restaurants and Tourism in Cape Town and the Western Cape