Durban - It is all systems go for the first Essence Festival, which will be taking place in the city of Durban next week.
This is according to mayor Zandile Gumede, who was speaking at the Durban International Convention Centre on Wednesday.
“We have worked tirelessly over the past few months in preparing for this festival, and we are confident that this event will be a huge success,” she said.
“Essence Festival Durban will give us an opportunity to market our city to global markets, especially the United States, which is one of our key source markets.
“This event will give us a competitive advantage with all global cities. In terms of our state of readiness, I confirm to you all today that from our side it is all well with our systems, and we are more than ready,” said Gumede.
This huge festival kicks-off on Tuesday, with a Durban business fair conference. The conference aims to promote a radical economic transformation agenda from respected business personalities.
This will be followed by the Women’s Economic Empowerment breakfast and the Creative Industry Workshop.
The breakfast will focus on enhancing the economic empowerment of women through transformation and breaking of business rules in previously male-dominated industries, and the Creative Industry Workshop will comprise all aspects of entertainment production and industry.
The festival will close off with three ticketed music concerts, beginning with an Essence all-star jazz concert at the Playhouse on Friday, the Essence all-star music festival on Saturday, and the Essence all-star gospel concert on Sunday at the stadium.
Durban Tourism head Philip Sithole said the festival was a partnership between the city of New Orleans in the US and the city of Durban, with more South African artists lined up.
“The partnership between the two cities has been in existence for a very long time in terms of cultural exchanges and economic development engagement. We needed to have a platform that connected the two cities, and Essence –with many other platforms – are some of those which can be utilised to connect the two cities,” said Sithole.
“We have a formalised relationship and historical connections. More than 80% of artists will be from South Africa, dominated by artists from Durban,” he added.
The six-day event at the Durban ICC, Exhibition Centre and Moses Mabhida Stadium has created about 5 000 job opportunities to the people of eThekwini.
Due to the festival being hosted at both the ICC and Durban Exhibition Centre,, Walnut Road will be closed to traffic from tomorrow until the 16th.
Motorists are urged to use alternative routes.