Gauteng MEC for sport, recreation, arts and culture Barbara Creecy joins in the dancing

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The parade begins and ends at Zoo Lake

Carnival to take over streets of Rosebank FOLLOWING in the footsteps of London's Nottinghill, Joburg is to host a street carnival to celebrate cultural diversity. September 8, 2005 By Lucky Sindane JOHANNESBURG is gearing up for its biggest carnival ever, to take place on Saturday, 10 September from 11am through the streets of Rosebank. About 3 000 people - all dressed in spectacular costumes - from Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Sedibeng and Mogale City are expected to take part. Dancers at the launch of the carnival The 6,3km carnival route starts at Zoo Lake, travels along Eastwold Way, Oxford Road, Bristol and Avonwold roads and returns to Zoo Lake. The provincial department of sport, recreation, arts and culture has spent about R2-million over the past four months preparing for the carnival, with artists from across the province roped in to train all the participants. "Carnivals all over the world are about people taking back the streets to tell their stories of hope, cultural diversity and triumph," said MEC for sport, recreation, arts and culture Barbara Creecy. "Gauteng is at the heart of a country full of diversity, hope and triumph, and we will be telling our stories on the streets this September." Across the world, carnivals brought people together - whether on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil or in Nottinghill, in London. "By supporting the Gauteng carnival the provincial government wants to do the same, while growing tourism to help us create work and fight poverty," Creecy added. She said the government chose Zoo Lake at the epicentre of the carnival because it was a tourist attraction. "Our aim is to attract tourists, who always come to Zoo Lake." Gauteng's department of sport, recreation, arts and culture has set up a joint operations centre to take care of safety and traffic management, and manage the procession. There will be a prize-giving ceremony at Zoo Lake at 3pm for all the participants. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za