The ‘Taste of Cape Town’ festival this weekend has been a huge success, if the traffic jams on Kloofnek Road have been anything to go by, largely due to the good publicity received.Cheers to all the chefs who prepared fine foods for thousands of visitors to the festival under trying circumstances, with extreme heat, limited space and less than perfect cooking equipment.
The location of the Festival on the Jan van Riebeeck sportfield was not ideal – the parking area at the second sport field was too far away, and in the dark the walk was dangerous on a very steep, unlit and uneven route. The shuttle was a great solution to this problem, but this was not communicated to persons parking at the sport field, and one such vehicle was not enough. Tamboerskloof clearly does not offer enough parking for an event with such a large following. No traffic police were visible on or off Kloofnek Road, and it meant that a trip from the city to Camps Bay took more than an hour. On Friday this coincided with the start of school holidays and the start of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, making matters worse.
The staff selling the crowns, wearing soft pink T-shirts, were hard to find, especially deeper into the grounds and after dark. There were eight ticket sellers in total, but only two were visible the whole evening.
Congratulations to all who made the Festival such a success – but please take the Festival back to Camps Bay next year. Last year’s ‘Taste of Cape Town’ in Camps Bay had a far more organised and sophisticated feel to it.
