City hosts festive events booking info session for Minstrels, Choirs and Bands
14 July 2026
The City hosted representatives from various minstrel groups today at the historic City Hall in a collaborative engagement aimed at supporting roleplayers involved in Minstrel groups, Christmas bands, and Malay Choirs. The well attended engagement with these key City partners comes ahead of a busy festive season of cultural events. During the session, City officials outlined its events bylaw processes and proposals on venue booking processes in order to ensure all participants are best equipped for the season ahead. Read more below:
The festive season is the busiest time of the year for events, and requires paid up and confirmed venue bookings and permit applications to be completed timeously and in line with existing legislation.
SAPS further applies a medium-risk SASREA rating to all Minstrel events, which limits the number of suitable public or private venues.
The City's supportive approach to the culturally unique Klopse competitions is the basis for the consultations, aimed at ensuring these groups have clear and agreed guidelines in place for the booking processes that apply.
'We recognise the important role that our recreation facilities play in hosting cultural and community events. Our responsibility is to balance these competing demands fairly and effectively so that our facilities can serve a wide range of community needs. We recognise there is room to improve and streamline our venue booking processes. We have shared some of the proposed improvements that we will be applying and are committed to working towards a system that is clearer, more efficient and easier for event organisers to navigate,' said Mayoral Committee Member for Community Services and Health, Councillor Francine Higham.
This past festive season saw a robust and successful schedule of Klopse competitions throughout the summer, which the City backed with the largest portion of its overall events budget going to supporting Klopse events.
Tweede Nuwe Jaar was elevated to new heights, including a first ever live TV broadcast, with close to 25 000 spectators at DHL Stadium and many tens of thousands more viewing the free street parade by over 20 000 performers.
'This proves what is possible, and, looking ahead, we want to provide greater certainty and stability for organisers. We owe it to the supporters of these events, to the participants and the hours of practise and toil they put into their preparations, to the cultural history we are the joint custodians of, to ensure that these events are safe, professional, apolitical and that they are able to attract corporate sponsorships, which are the lifeblood of any event, that ensure their viability and sustainability for years to come,' said Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.End
Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
