On the 18th of April, I attended the launch of an exciting new City Walk Cape Town which has been created & facilitated by the awesome team at Cape Town Partnership. The walk which will also be known as City Walk Saturdays is planned to take place every 3rd Saturday of each month from 10am to 2pm.
It’s aimed to be a celebration of all the wonderful, sometimes hidden & undiscovered gems this city has to offer with a strong focus on local creativity and design. It’s even been declared as the newest member of Cape Town’s Big 6 (Cape Point, Groot Constantia, Kirstenbosch, Robben Island, Table Mountain Cableway and the V&A Waterfront) – which of course now becomes the Cape Town Big 7.
This family-friendly walk calls upon all Capetonians to contribute ideas, entertainment, expression and stories. The walk is expected to grow each month as more and more people come on board. This means you’ll have new things to discover with each walk, ensuring that there’s plenty of reason for you to keep returning on a regular basis.
As far as the route goes – the walk kicks off at The Company’s Gardens, continues down St George’s Mall to Waterkant Street, and then progresses up the Fan Walk to St Andrew’s Square.
You can of course do this walk at any time with the help of route signs & maps which will be made available, but on the official City Walk Saturdays, you’ll have the added benefit of lots of extra features, sights & activities planned along the route.
The next planned walk is taking place this Saturday – 16 May 2015 (from 10am to 2pm) and this is what you can expect:
- The next event will continue along the theme ‘Play’ and is an ideal family day out, featuring public art, walking tours and retail offerings such as Bubble Trouble – a mobile troop of bubble lovers spreading joy-filled bubbles along the City Walk area, #100AfricanReads – a live public art installation where performers pull together elements of reading, writing, dance and public participation, street salsa, gumboot dancing, contemporary dance, face painting, giant chess and giant Jenga, as well as puppet shows and fire dancers.
- The downloadable VoiceMap walking tours app features interesting stories such as the ‘Company’s Garden’, ‘Slavery in the Cape’ and ‘Landscape of Change’ and more that require only a cellphone and some headphones to enjoy.
- Businesses along the route will be open and refreshments will be for sale. (you can also pop in at these spots if you need a bathroom break)
- City Walk Saturday will also host an Instawalk for the duration of the event. The instawalk will meet at 11am outside the National Gallery in the Company’s Gardens and will use the hashtag – #walkcapetown. At the first event #walkcapetown trended at number one in South Africa. On the day a prize was given for the best image (you can see it here), and prizes will again be up for grabs this Saturday.
For more info, do hop on over here: http://www.capetownpartnership.co.za/2015/05/citywalkmay16/
And here: http://www.capetownpartnership.co.za/2015/05/city-walk-saturdays-whats-on-16-may-2015/
(The Cape Town Partnership website will also be your source of updates for every City Walk Saturday – you can also follow them on Twitter – @ctpartnership – and route maps & programmes should also be available online and from participating spots along the route.)
This is a fantastic opportunity for you to come and celebrate your city, so do not miss out OK. Anyone wishing to exhibit on or participate in the City Walk can also email didi@capetownpartnership.co.za.
To further entice you, I’m going to leave you with some images from the last City Walk Saturday:
And if that wasn’t enough, then check out what Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana, CEO of the Cape Town Partnership, had to say about our new City Walk (she’s a really awesome chick btw – a true, passionate Capetonian and someone after my own heart):
“The City Walk as a route belongs to the people of Cape Town. We are the people with history to tell about the space and our relationship with it and we are the ones that engage with it in our work and play. Cape Town needs more than one story. The City belongs to its people and is defined by the words, marks and symbols we place in it.”
Let’s do this Cape Town. 🙂
xxx