Special greetings are extended to Mr Khalid Abdulla, CEO espAfrika; Mr Billy Domingo, Festival Director; Ms Lutfia Vayai of Independent Media, and representatives of other media houses; Ms Zipho Marimbela of PRASA; representatives from the Department of Arts and Culture; Ms Kaz Henderson, festival publicist; special guests and members of the media.

As the City of Cape Town, we don’t hide our desire to sustain our efforts to ensure that Cape Town remains the events capital of Africa. For a city to authenticate such a pursuit, it has to host big events throughout the year.

In this regard, the annual Cape Town International Jazz Festival is an integral feature on the city’s events calendar. The City of Cape Town is pleased to host this world-class music event as it amplifies our intention to be the events capital of Africa and allows us to further realise our economic growth strategy of building skills and creating jobs as this festival is known to be ‘more than just jazz’.

The City has been a proud supporter of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival since its inception and acknowledges espAfrika for its excellent skills in event management and for producing one of the most prestigious music festivals in the world.

We look forward to welcoming more than 37 600 jazz enthusiasts and sharing our multicultural and diverse people, cosmopolitan features, pristine beaches and spectacular natural landscape while the smooth sound of jazz fills the air. We are ready to roll out our Mother City red carpet.

The Cape Town International Jazz Festival embodies our economic strategy and thus our relationship grows deeper every year as we observe the progress on the year before. The event this year is no different, where we acknowledge the sustainable job creation and skills transfer projects. As the City, we are pleased that a wide spectrum of stakeholders, across age and class, have been identified as beneficiaries for the skills transfer engagements. We are further pleased at the range of locations for these sessions, such as the Guga S’thebe Theatre in Langa, the Artscape Theatre, the Cape Sun Hotel and the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

These engagements allow access to the labour market and participation in the local economy. The skills transfer referred to extends from technical, hospitality, media and marketing through to training and development, office support and fashion.

The Cape Town International Jazz Festival is staged at the Cape Town International Convention Centre and this partnership allows access to more local suppliers for services such as catering, printing and audio-visual requirements, which enable indirect job opportunities. We are pleased that the festival in 2016 created 298 directs jobs and 3 244 indirect jobs.

Training and development workshops create a platform for jazz and industry maestros to impart their knowledge, skills and valuable experiences to further develop the Cape Town jazz industry but also to empower communities across the Cape. The development arm of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival is as strong as its concerts, thus we acknowledge all who are involved through these processes to build a ‘more than just jazz’ festival. Cape Town appreciates all of you for the work you do in ensuring that we make progress possible together.

Needless to say, the City acknowledges the R61,8 million direct spend pumped into our local economy in addition to the indirect spend into our economy.

The jazz festival is an important part of the Cape Town brand and the City of Cape Town is proud to be hosting this event for the 18th time.

We look forward to welcoming fans and artists from all over to come and celebrate and perform at the 18th annual Cape Town International Jazz Festival, and experience Cape Town as the city in which to work, play and eat.