Cape Town’s largest and most inclusive free festive celebration takes place from 16:00 on Sunday 6 December 2015, when Mayor Patricia de Lille switches on the festive lights.
In the run-up to this year’s Festival of Lights celebration concert, City of Cape Town Executive Exec Mayor, Patricia de Lille, conducted a test switch-on of the festive lights on Wednesday evening 25 November.
‘This year’s Festival of Lights will be celebrated under the theme ‘We Love Africa’, in line with our goals to build an inclusive city and to establish Cape Town as the gateway to Africa’ advised Exec Mayor, Patricia de Lille.
Mayor De Lille was joined at the test switch-on by some of the artists who will perform at the concert, including Jimmy Nevis, Groove Essential, Lungisa Xhamela (Idols top eight), and the Ikapa Dance Studio dancers.
Q&A with Cape Town Green Map
Are the light bulbs energy saving bulbs?
Yes they are energy saving (15 W) as they do not consume as much energy as a normal incandescent lamp (60 W). A 100 m length of streamer wire with a 300 mm spacing of lamp holders with 15 W lamps consumes 4 900 W, whereas a 100 m length of rope light consumes 1 000 W. Light Emitting Diodes (LED) are very, very low energy consumption devices. 100 LEDs will consume 440 W. By using these low consumption devices, we reduce the load on the network considerably.
As the manufacture of the set pieces is extremely labour intensive, alternative methods were researched. Rope lighting was selected as the most cost-effective method as it reduces the amount of time spent and also dramatically reduces the loading on the system. Due to its flexibility, the rope lighting also allows us lots of freedom with our designs.
SWITCH ON DATE: festivities begin from 16:00 on Sunday 6 December 2015 in Adderley Street, Cape Town 8001.