Durban is set to be revved up when the Top Gear Festival screeches into town on the weekend of June 16-17, with the organisers pulling out all the stops to put on a motoring spectacle not seen before in SA.
Top Gear Live operations chief James Cooke Priest flew into the city on Tuesday for the official media launch at the Moses Mabhida Stadium, the anchor venue for the festival.
Priest said the Durban festival would take Top Gear Live’s global events “to another level”, and would help entrench Durban as a major events and tourism destination.
“We’ve had smaller Top Gear Live events in Joburg and Cape Town, and last year had the inaugural Top Gear Festival at Kyalami, which attracted more than 76 000 people. We were in talks with all three of SA’s major cities, but Durban and the KZN government mobilised with astonishing speed to secure this event for the city,” he said.
Priest said Durban’s festival would go beyond the track stunts and live show within the stadium, which would be hosted by Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, and “The Stig”.
“Durban will boast Top Gear’s first ever street circuit – over 2km long and winding around the streets surrounding the Moses Mabhida Stadium… Spectators will see Stig power laps, head-to-head racing, supercars, drag racing, drifting, celebrity race challenges and more in the packed daily schedule,” he said.
“Local motorsport talent will also be showcased, with Motorsport South Africa running the Super Production Car Series and the Volkswagen Polo Challenge Series on the Top Gear street circuit. And when visitors need a break from the action, they can head into the motoring expo packed with some of the world’s greatest supercars, classics and motoring memorabilia,” Priest said.
“This event will offer a more interactive experience for visitors, as Moses Mabhida Stadium and its surrounding precinct offers a world-class venue with the necessary infrastructure required to host this motoring festival. Our presenters will be pushing the boundaries of live motoring festivities as they perform to their biggest audience to date,” he said.
Deputy mayor Nomvuso Shabalala said she had no doubt the event would garner huge exposure and economic spin-offs for Durban.
“We’ve hosted several major global events and Top Gear will take our hosting reputation to new heights. Moses Mabhida Stadium is a multi-purpose venue with space for an athletics track, which is where the race track for the live show will be installed,” she said.
Shabalala said the street circuit would incorporate part of the old A1 GP track and would result in certain roads being closed for the event. Portions of Masabalala Yengwa (NMR) Avenue, and Sandile Thusi (Argyle), Battery Beach and Sylvester Ntuli (Brickhill) roads would be affected.
Economic Development and Tourism MEC Michael Mabuyakhulu said that the R30 million-plus invested jointly by the city and provincial government in hosting the event was money well spent.
“We believe that we have taken the correct decision to bring this event to Durban for the next three years.
“People who complain that we are wasting money need to look at the big picture.
“If we want to compete globally both for tourists and investment, then we need to play globally,” he said.
Mabuyakhulu said that the event would be linked to bigger plans to develop the automotive industry in Durban.
Tickets for the festival go on sale from today and range from R250 to R995 for a platinum package. - The Mercury