So far so good as students rage through weekend without incident
Thousands of school leavers have been partying the past few days away in Plettenberg Bay after the annual Plett Rage student festival kicked off on Friday – YOLANDE STANDER reports
This is our first opportunity to let our hair down after the final exams and probably our last before we start our studies next year, so we plan on having as much fun as possible – this according to Corni Thuyns-ma,18, from Pretoria.
For 18-year-old Durbanite Derrick Smith, it is a similar scenario and he plans on spending his days on the beach and his nights partying. “And the first few days have delivered. The weather was fantastic, the girls are pretty and the entertainment is awesome,” Smith said.
Organisers were working hard behind the scenes to ensure the first few days lived up to these expectations and according to organisers, it got off to a smooth start.
“We are pleased to report that there has not been a single incident at any of our venues so far,” festival founder Ronen Klugman said.
He added that the transport system also ran smoothly and the volunteers were in action ensuring that each youngster arrives safely at the venue and back at their accommodation.
“The feedback from everyone has also been overwhelmingly positive,” said Klugman, adding that they had invested substantially in creating an experience catering for all the senses, including major decor additions. “Festivalgoers seem to be eating it up.”
In terms of safety Plett Watch’s Marius Venter, involved in keeping an eye on the youngsters, confirmed that the first few days had gone incident-free.
“All the youngsters that went through the gates were counted with digital counters and all of them got back to their accommodation establishments after festivities,” Venter said.
Klugman said they expected between 6,500 and 7,000 youngsters to attend the festival over the course of the event.
For Plett, the festival, which started on Friday and runs until December 7, is more than just making sure school leavers have a good time. Not only does it provide a boost of close to R50-million to the local economy each year, but it exposes the town to future tourists.
On the entertainment front, organisers have put together a variety of activities including performances by some of SA’s top music acts as well as VIP parties and other entertainment
“It’s extremely difficult to name one highlight seeing as the festival is such a monumental period in a matric’s life, it’s their celebration of coming of age and stepping into adulthood.
“We work day in and dayo ut for more than a year making sure that we are able to deliver on the best and safest festival production possible,” said Plett Rage spokesman Ashley Brown.
For the second time, Plett Rage is being hosted at outdoor festival grounds dubbed CoCo Valley just outside of town. This is where students gather for evening entertainment while daytime activities take place at the so-called Bikini Beach just off Central Beach.
“Klugman has gathered some of the very best suppliers and team members for this year’s festival to ensure that we do not just deliver with a festival with some of the best South African artists, but also one of the best festival experiences.”
Brown said one of the most exciting new aspects of this year’s event was installing a large number of
decor and artwork.
“One is an art piece of blue petrel birds built by Mouth2Mouth from recycled plastics. These birds are highly affected by pollution and our goal with these types of installations is to shed a light on issues that we believe should be addressed by the future leaders of South Africa -the youth.”
He added that another new addition was an exclusive, invite-only party called The Oasis hosted at Grand Africa Rooms and Rendezvous in the town’s Main Street.
“This event series is limited to 200 people per day and was scheduled for two days, but due to us receiving more than 1,600 applications, we’re expanding it to a three-part series allowing us to cater for a total of 600 lucky Plett Ragers.”
Keeping thousands of students safe over the festival period is a mammoth task and therefore a detailed safety plan has been put in place which involves the cooperation between police, local law enforcement, local and provincial traffic departments, private security companies, the Plettenberg Bay Crime Prevention Association (PBCPA), local neighbourhood watch groups, and volunteers.
“Other than the exciting entertainment, we also pride ourselves in the safety and security measures that we have in place. We believe that we’ve not only created a safe space for these young adults to explore and express themselves, but we have also installed extensive safety and security measures to allow parents to feel at ease.”
Visit page 9 of CXpress for more images taken on the first two days of this year’s Rage
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