KNYSNA NEWS - Despite not having the necessary approval from Bitou municipality for this year’s Plett Rage student festival venue, organisers have announced the event’s new “home” for 2017.
They say the reason for the preemptive announcement is that ticket holders and parents are becoming “restless” as the festival is less than a month away.
Last week, the organisers announced on their Facebook page that this year’s festival would be hosted at Coco Valley – a property on the outskirts of town.
This after last year’s venue, The Meadows, became unavailable due to the upgrading of the Plettenberg Bay Waste Water Treatment Works located on the property.
Organisers have in the meantime applied for land use of another portion of the property, the Ganze Vallei farm just outside the town centre, for activities between 1 and 7 December.
Earlier this year they also applied for land use of Central beach for daytime activities. This elicited widespread criticism from various residents, organisations and businesses who believe that the event could have a negative impact on marine life and residents and businesses in the area.
According to the latest application, stakeholders have until 6 November to submit comments or raise concerns.
Municipal spokesperson Howard Swartz, however, confirmed that a decision has not yet been taken on either of the applications.
He added, “The organisers have chosen to make an announcement without the necessary approvals, and they do so at their own risk.”
The normal process in terms of the bylaw have not been finalised yet, Swartz said, and the application is still open for comments from the public.
Daron Smit of Nature Sports Company involved in organising the festival – which brings thousands of youngsters to the town each year and contributes about R50-million to the local economy – said they had in January already applied to again host the festival at The Meadows this year after last year's success.
However, in May the municipality informed them that this was no longer an option. “We therefore had to start at square one,” Smit said, which is why the venue approval process is still ongoing, he added.
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