Planning ahead for contentious Blythedale beach festival
Planning is well underway to ensure the festival will be safe and orderly this year.
The annual KwaDukuza beach festival has once again been approved to take place at Blythedale Beach – two years after mayor Ricardo Mthembu vowed that it would be moved to Nonoti Beach.
The annual event organised by KwaDukuza municipality (KDM) for the past eight years, sees more than 10 000 party goers stream into Blythedale Beach, drinking and partying up a storm, often leaving residents outraged.
Budgeted for R300 000, this year the festival is set to take place on December 26 and 27, boasting activities which include a fashion show, music entertainment, sporting activities, food courts, and indigenous games.
After numerous complaints from residents about the chaos the festival brought to the area, the festival was reportedly well organised last year with strict traffic control and policing.
KDM media liaison officer Sipho Mkhize said planning was well underway to ensure the festival would be safe and orderly this year.
In 2016 residents of the quiet suburb were tormented by nonstop partying where partygoers played music all night, littered the town with bottles and used condoms, while some could be spotted having sex on people’s driveways.
Resident Lizel Burgess said residents objected to the festival every year due the many disturbances it has been known to bring.
“In 2016 a man died after an ambulance could not make its way through the crowds to get to him.
“We were jailed in our homes for two days in 2016 as we could not get out of the area due to traffic. Music went on all day and all night and there was no respect shown for residents.”
However, a member of the Blythedale Ratepayers Association said the party was controlled last year.
“Last year there were three police roadblocks and strict enforcement of “no alcohol” saw the numbers drop from a crowd of about 10 000 to about 2 000, who were mostly well behaved. It was relatively quiet and peaceful compared to previous years and the music came to a stop at around 9.30pm.”
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