Seventh edition of the Soweto Kota Festival takes off

The much anticipated popular two time award winning kota festival has finally arrived.

The seventh annual Blue Ribbon Soweto Kota Festival is set take place on September 07 at Fun Valley Resort.

This was announced at the festival media launch on Tuesday, August 20 at Ubuntu Kraal.

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Founder and director of the Soweto Kota Festival, Sidwell Tshingilane said, “It’s the seventh year of the Blue Ribbon Soweto Kota Festival so this shows that we are growing and hoping that in future the festival will grow even bigger.

“In terms of preparations, everything is going well, this year we are even more organised and more prepared than the previous years.”

During the media engagement, Tshingilane further stated that the anticipated number of attendees is between 10 000 to 15 000 over the two day event.

Blue Ribbon Marketing Executive, Stephanie Hoy said sponsoring the festival is a wonderful opportunity for them since it is a land mark in Soweto and they are really proud to be involved.

“To invest in the SMEs and small entrepreneurs is really important for us because everybody needs a bit of a helping hand to get their businesses started.

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“A platform like the Soweto Kota Festival is just a great opportunity for small businesses and kota vendors to showcase their products and services. Hopefully everybody can come along and taste their beautiful products,” said Hoy.

Explaining the positive impact brought by the festival to the Soweto economy, Khosi Zikalala from Soweto Tourism said the Soweto Kota Festival has provided job opportunities to the youth of Soweto and local small businesses.

“Since the kota festival started seven years ago, many SMEs especially those owned by the youth of Soweto are getting job opportunities from this festival.

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“Individuals are now opening their own restaurants and employing people, so this shows that the festival is doing a lot to the communities around Soweto.

“It’s not only people who make kotas or who own restaurants that benefits from this but also people who rent out accommodation as well as tour operators are now getting employment through this initiative,” said Zikalala.