Carnival à la Cape Town gets under way

WEEKEND ARGUS

Esther Kautwima and Kati Bohm pose in daisy costumes that will open todays Cape Town Carnival. The costumes are part of the Namaqualand-themed group that will include a large chameleon floatPhoto: Neil Baynes

Cape Town - It’s party time in the Mother City on Saturday evening as the lights, glamour, sparkle and sheer over-the-top pizzazz of the Cape Town Carnival makes its way down Somerset Road, beginning at 7pm.

Weekend Argus was given an opportunity to visit the carnival’s costume department this week where a whopping 1 030 costumes were produced by a team of 60 who have been working on the project for three months.

Maria von Egidy, head of the carnival’s costume department, said their deadlines were so tight this year that she thought they would be finishing off the garments as the participants were walking on to the parade street.

The warehouse was packed to the brim with row after row of costume pieces, some of them even hanging from the ceiling, as the team steamed ahead at cutting, sticking and stitching it all together.

Von Egidy joked that her favourite “fix it” item is the common cable tie.

“You can poke it through anything and you don’t need a punch! You can pull it tight and it is better than a glue gun, which can be dangerous,” she said.

The smell and sight of polystyrene and paint hung in the room, which was filled with costumes and pieces such as multi-coloured daisies, tall elephants, devil horns, a rhino and hundreds of harnesses.

This wild array all comes together in telling the carnival’s story this year of African legends.

Von Egidy said she was grateful for the space in Somerset Road. In previous years, the carnival had been held in Long Street.

“Costumes can potentially get bigger. They can never be as big as floats but this is still a good move for us,” she said.

“We need to shock people’s minds with larger-than-life costumes. We are doing well but we have the scope to go further. Impact is more important than size.”

Their biggest costume is a large daisy that opens the carnival, created by the Namaqualand group.

It is 4m in diameter.

Von Egidy said the carnival was a critically important event for the costume-making industry in Cape Town.

“The challenge is to grow the carnival. We are maturing as a carnival… One day communities can produce costumes themselves.”

Unfortunately, with deadlines so tight this year, the hundreds of carnival participants will probably only get to see and put on the costumes for the first time today.

“There is no time. They are lucky if they have a few hours. We have got to remedy this. It is such a rush.”

After the carnival, the costumes will be stored and will be available for hire.

* The Cape Town Carnival begins at 7pm on Somerset Road. See www.capetowncarnival.com for details.

Weekend Argus