Cape Town’s Festive Season kicks into top gear on Sunday 1 December 2013, when Executive Mayor, Alderman Patricia de Lille, switches on the City’s traditional festive lights signalling the start of an exciting two-month long programme.
The Festival of Lights celebrations, in the build-up to the traditional switch-on, will start at 16:00 and feature a star-studded entertainment line-up on the Grand Parade. At 20:30 Mayor De Lille will ‘flick the switch’ to light up the City of Cape Town’s traditional festive lights, amid a spectacular fireworks and laser display.
Headlining the pre-switch-on entertainment is South Africa’s pre-eminent trumpeter-singer-songwriter, twice Grammy-nominated jazz legend Hugh Masekela. With 60 years in the music business, Masekela holds the Order of Ikhamanga from President Zuma (2010) and a WOMEX Lifetime Achievement Award (2011), while he has also appeared the world over alongside the likes of Miles Davis, Paul Simon and the late Miriam Makeba.
Mi Casa will then take to the stage for an electrifying street party. This multi South African Music Award-winning, Johannesburg-based house music trio have topped various charts nationwide and have opened for a number of major international acts including US star Drake.
Also in the line-up are local crossover band Hot Water, the classically trained vocal maestro Selim Kagee, chart-topping electro-swing outfit GoodLuck, pop singer/songwriter Jimmy Nevis and Cape Town’s beloved dance-pop band The Rockets. They will be followed by DJ LuWayne at 21:40, who will spin the latest and greatest hits for revellers until 22:00.
The celebrations will be hosted by award-winning local entertainers Sorina ‘Die Flooze’ Erasmus of 7de Laan fame and Terence Bridgett who has made appearances on Isidingo, Backstage and 7de Laan.
South Africa’s largest free open-air public event, the Festival of Lights, coincides with the start of the four-week countdown to Cape Town assuming the coveted title of World Design Capital (WDC) 2014 – a historic moment that will take centre stage at the City’s first-ever New Year’s Eve celebrations on 31 December 2013 which will be held on the Grand Parade.
