THE Kloof Conservancy has cancelled this year’s Indigenous Open Gardens, scheduled for Saturday, 20 and Sunday, 21 June.
“As things stand at the moment, it is clear that even if the lockdown restrictions are lifted further in early June, there will still be restrictions. It is difficult to see that events like the Indigenous Open Gardens would be allowed to go ahead,” said the Kloof Conservancy’s chairman, Paolo Candotti.
He noted that forecasts see a peak in infections near September and, even with eased restrictions, the risk of infection would still be high.
“We also need to bear in mind that a very high percentage of our visitors are in the senior citizen category and thus more vulnerable and also more likely to be still in some form of lockdown mode until the end of this year,” said Candotti.
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The conservancy considered postponing the event to the end of the year but opted out of this move.
“There will still be uncertainty and we cannot keep our team and our gardeners on a string forever. The Rotary Anns Open Gardens is also scheduled for October and we have always enjoyed a good relationship with them and we would not want to clash with their event,” he said.
The non-profit organisation said the 2021 event will go ahead with the gardens booked for this year. It hopes to run the event from Saturday, 19 to Sunday, 20 June 2021.
“We will need to check the general events calendar before confirming, but at this stage that seems like a good date and we are hoping the gardeners will all come on board next year. Our projects kitty will take a knock but that is something we will have to accept. We live in a strange situation that none of us have experienced before and one that we have to learn to adjust to. We hope to have your support in 2021,” said Candotti.
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