December 20, 2006
By JoNews Reporter
THE clock is ticking and tension is rising as 1500 performers get ready to usher in the New Year with a bang at the Joburg Carnival.
Ten African countries, including Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Burundi, will take part in this year's festivities, giving the carnival a more continental feel.
Seven colourful troupes of up to 50 members from each region of the City will parade through the streets of the city in a spectacular display, creating a vibe of song and dance.
Performers will include clowns, stilt-walkers, drummers, jugglers and children from the Stanley Kids Orphanage in Hillbrow.
This year the carnival's theme is "Nyakaza – Joburg unplugged."
Addressing the media on 20 December, Steven Sack, Director, Arts Culture and Heritage in the City said the theme seeks to encourage people to be creative. "The theme relates to the movement and sound of a city in transformation, but also to encourage people to make their own kind of music in a creative manner."
Stilt walkers will add colour to the proceedings
This colourful extravaganza will kick off at 2pm on Sunday the 31st of December in Kotze Street, Hillbrow. The procession will travel through Wolmarans, Melle, De Korte, Nelson Mandela Bridge, Nteme Piliso Street, Jeppe Street before settling at the Newtown Park, where the various troupes will display their styles.
Now in its third year, the Joburg Carnival is organised jointly by the City of Johannesburg and the South African Police Service.
Govindsamy Mariemuthoo , Communications Director of the police in Johannesburg, assured participants and onlookers of their safety. "We support any project aimed at community upliftment and want people to concentrate on this rather than commit crime," he said. But the police will be more than a law-enforcement presence with the 30-man police band making its usual appearance at the carnival as well.
This year marks the first performance of the Vuvuzela Orchestra, the brainchild of Pedro Espisanshis, musical educator who is better known as the "music man" from the television programme, Kideo. According to Espisanshis, the vuvuzela will for the first time, be used to belt out harmonious tunes. "In the past it was used to make a lot of noise to scare the opposition," says Espisanshis. "Pity then that the opposition usually has the same idea resulting in a cacophony of nerve-wrecking sound during soccer matches.
But musician-magician, Espisanshis put the old instrument to new use. After just two weeks of training, the performers from Soweto and Diepsloot can now blow several vuvuzelas playing nicely in tune.
The full orchestra consists of 60 vuvuzela players are sure to wow the crowd with their new-found skill and unique percussions, some made from toilet roll holders.
Sack said training the vuvuzela players was part of initiatives of the City to promote the arts and uplift communities.
The carnival was created to provide entertainment on New Year's Eve to city dwellers, said Sack. "We realised that more policing alone would not do it. The community also needed to feel a part of the arts and cultural programme of the city," said Sack. Indeed the city hopes to cater for everyone, "first the families, then the ravers," Sack added.
Revellers at the 2005 new Year's Eve Carnival had a lot to smile about
The carnival ends at 6pm after which various local artists will take to the stage, keeping the audience in the groove until 3am.
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