The annual Cape Town Carnival, which was held on 18th March, has become a highlight on the South African annual events calendar. This year’s theme was “Amaza Ocean Odyssey” and celebrated Cape Town’s place at the confluence of two oceans: The Atlantic & Indian Oceans.

Celebrating the oceans was a fitting theme as the Mother City is suffering one of the worst droughts in history and the water-related theme comes at the perfect time to create awareness in a fun and colourful way. The welcome spectacle also served as a reminder of what beauty surrounds the Western Cape and the importance of water and the oceans.

Spectators have the freedom of the city streets on the Green Point Fan Walk during the carnival and the near fifty thousand spectators were entertained by more than 2 000 dazzling costumed performers, floats, vibrant dance routines, and musicians after which they enjoyed a thumping street party, showcasing some of SA’s hottest musical talent.

The carnival celebrates diversity, creativity and cultural understanding and is an event in which various communities and cultures from all over the Western Cape, schools and others spend months preparing for this huge celebration.

This year’s festivities also included dancers from the world’s largest carnival, the Rio Carnival, and New York-based singer Oshri, who performed “Crazy but Free”, the 2017 Cape Town Carnival theme song.

“We’d like to make the Cape Town Carnival recognisable on an international level, as people from all over the world attend it,” said Rachel Jafta, chairperson of Media24 and of the Cape Town Carnival Trust.

It was enlightening to hear the many conversations in the crowd around the current drought and the fact that there is a dire shortage of potable water in the Western Cape – people were enjoying themselves but the water-based them also elicited many conversations on the need for and easiest methods of saving water as well as looking after both water resources; the ocean and potable water sources.

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