Annual Feast of the Clowns 2014 – The festival is on!

13 August 2014

Established in 2000, Feast of the Clowns is an inner-city community festival created to contribute to regeneration of the city, celebrate the cultural and social diversity of the community, create a space for local artistic expression, and to raise awareness about issues of justice and social concern.

It started off as a small street parade of only 300 participants, but it got bigger and brighter in the following years. The feast has transformed into a social awareness event on the City of Tshwane calendar that attracts thousands of spectators and participants.

The Feast of the Clowns festival kicked off on 11 August 2014, with the main festival to take place on Saturday, 16 August 2014, at Burgers Park. The event is hosted by the Tshwane Leadership Foundation (TLF) in partnership with the City of Tshwane and other local roleplayers.

The feast takes place annually in August and runs over six days, with the main festival on the last day. The main festival includes the Parade of the Clowns – a colourful street parade with around 5 000 participants, 3 stages with live artists, sport and play, a fashion show, art exhibitions, and craft and food stalls for local traders.

The purpose of this festival is to celebrate the diversity of Tshwane, create awareness about social challenges, encourage festivity, collectively imagine a healthier city, and encourage socio-economic development through the arts. During the week and days prior to the fest, there are activities that focus on addressing pressing social matters such as homelessness, HIV and Aids, gender issues, xenophobia and refugees, human trafficking, greening the city and children’s rights.

The theme for 2014 is: (Un)shackled. The word is an oxymoron, stating that one is free while it also questions one’s freedom. (Un)shackled as a theme was chosen because it best communicates celebration of the new freedoms of 1994, while also remembering existing and new chains oppressing communities. It considers the reality, gift and challenge of freedom as represented by these metaphorical broken chains. It urges communities to face these metaphorical chains and voice their concerns about them, and to seek out ways to resolve and move away from them to a place where they find freedom and spread freedom.

One of the festival’s main attractions is the Parade of the Clowns – a colourful street parade showcasing more than 5 000 participants in colourful clown costumes and eye catching traditional attires. A number of activities is lined up to take place in and around the park, showcasing the cream of Tshwane’s artists. These include music, art, fashion, entertainment, food and handicraft.

The parade will start at 10:00 and is expected to end around 12:00. It will commence from Jeff Masemola Street where they will turn left into Steve Biko Street, left into Johannes Ramokhoase Street and left into Thabo Sehume Street. From there they proceed into Burgers Park. The abovementioned streets, including the Burgers Park Lane, will be closed from 08:00 until late hours

Motorists should expect disturbances in traffic from 10:00. The streets will be closed as the parade proceeds. Certain streets will allow traffic, depending on the pace of the parade.

The entrance is free. Come and join the fun!