City moves into Top Gear
It’s all systems go for the Top Gear Festival that will be held in Durban next weekend.
MORE than 75 000 people are expected to attend this year’s Top Gear Festival in Durban that revs up next weekend on 21 and 22 June.
Today, Durban’s Mayor James Nxumalo announced from the Moses Mabhida Stadium that the city was ready to host the festival that’s proven to be popular among motor heads around the country. Nxumalo said the economic benefit for the city will exceed last year’s R160 million. In the first year of the festival (2012), that was spawned from the BBC hit show Top Gear, it contributed over R93 million to the city’s economy, Nxumalo told journalists.
The Durban festival will be hosted by all three of the UK’s presenters from the show that is viewed by more than 350 million people worldwide – Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May together with their tame racing driver, The Stig. Organisers said this year’s festival will be “bigger and better”.
Top Gear Festival director, Kim Reynard promised “record breaking stunts”. “This year’s festival promises to be one of the most ambitious stunts yet.,” Reynard said.
“The track inside the stadium is completed and traffic management plans are already drawn and ready for implementation,” said Nxumalo. He urged road users to co-operate with traffic police as road closures in and around the stadium are enforced from Thursday, 19 June. The city has contributed R10 million to the event while the province has injected R15 million.
