Plett Rage gets thumbs-up from festinos

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PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Despite a rocky start due to venue issues, the first Plett Rage student festival since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic is in full swing and is getting a big thumbs-up from festinos.

Every year thousands of school leavers flock to the coastal holiday town to let their hair down after their matric exams and enjoy some top quality music and partying for about a week.

This usually provides the local economy with a boost of between R50- and R90-million. With the outbreak of the pandemic the festival had been placed on ice, but is back for the first time this year.

This year's festival started on 2 December and will run until 9 December.

Positive feedback

Festival owner Ronen Klugmen said the energy among the youngsters is electric. "There are very happy young people having the time of their life in a safe environment surrounded by all their friends," Klugman said.

He added that they were expecting 3 500 to 4 000 people to join activities daily. A snap survey by KPH revealed that most students are full of praise of the event.

"It is a well-organised event and we are extremely happy to be here [Plettenberg Bay]. It is a wonderful town and we are enjoying ourselves to the fullest," Rager Isak du Toit said.

PHOTO GALLERY: Plett Rage Festival 2022

Another student, Mikayla Meiring, said it had been a tough year and that Plett Rage is a good way to reset and have fun before heading off to university.

A local resident also shared on social media her experience with partygoers. A group, staying across the road from her, realised that they had made a noise in the early morning hours and apologised through an Afrikaans poem and leaving the resident a bottle of wine to make up for their ruckus.

Venue, safety and security

In terms of safety the Plettenberg Bay Crime Prevention Association, along with other authorities, is on top of their game with a well-orchestrated action plan. Operations head Otto Olivier said Rage operations are monitored and controlled from an operations centre and incidents involving students in distress or other issues had so far been resolved "swiftly and with precision".

Before the event kicked off, organisers had been on the receiving end of community backlash over the venue for this year's event.

There was large-scale community objection to the proposed new venue, not only because of environmental and safety concerns, but also ones of inconvenience for residents of the area as well as economic losses for the town.

Organisers applied for use of a portion of land in the Roodefontein area on the outskirts of Plettenberg Bay to use not only for the Rage, but also other events over the next five years. Past venues have included Plett Central, Central Beach and Ganse Vallei.

Despite the objections, the application was approved last month. There were however restrictions, including approval for only a year and not five as applied for.

The area applied for was also initially 2,6ha, but this was reduced to about 1ha. Objectors appealed the decision, but the event is believed to have gone ahead before the appeal process had come to an end last Friday.

Klugman said that there are always those who do not tolerate the Ragers in town, but the "overwhelming majority welcome them with open arms".

"The venue is working brilliantly. The noise issues that they [objectors] thought they would have are non-existent. I even had one of the main objectors thank me," Klugman said.

It's been dancing and partying an galore at Rage so far, as per usual.