Marianne Merten
‘The Party Is On!” billboards proclaim along Cape Town’s main thoroughfares with just 21 days to go before the new millennium. It has not been an easy path for the Mother City. After announcing plans for the mother of all parties at the start of this year, it all seemed to collapse when the event managers faced up to their inability to raise the necessary funding. Then individual organisers stepped in.
Some grumbling remains, but the most serious misgivings seem to centre on attracting VIPs. It seems a large number of the Who’s Who in Parliament will be lining up for the R1 500-a-head medieval costume dinner at the Castle. Yet organisers of the Kings and Queens of the Castle event are keeping mum on who is on their RSVP list.
If you decide to watch television on the big night, then perhaps you can play spot- the-celebrity among the goings-on in the Castle courtyard to be shown on 170 TV networks.
Another star-studded occasion to be broadcast internationally is the all- African banquet on Robben Island. President Thabo Mbeki will light a Torch of Light before ending the night at home. Also confirmed on the guest list is former president and former inmate Nelson Mandela. His wife Graa Machel has yet to give a final yeah or nay.
About 200 000 foreign visitors are expected in the city. Law enforcement authorities are bracing themselves for about 400 000 people to gather in the greater city bowl area. All leave has been cancelled for 90% of the local police officers, 300 traffic officers will pound the streets, 100 firefighters will be on duty and 130 ambulance staff are ready to deal with any emergency.
Reservations at the top hotels and restaurants are scarce. Only two of the R12 500-a-table spots at Blues in Camps Bay were left this week – despite the bomb at neighbouring St Elmo’s. Meanwhile, only one of three functions at the Mount Nelson hotel has any space left: the famous hotel is offering celebrations for both the South African and English New Years, ranging from R1 000 for dinner, excluding drink, to R2 000 for a dinner dance.
The Mother City’s traditional gathering place in times of need and joy, the Grand Parade, will host a giant countdown clock for the traditional “10, 9, 8 …” greeting of the New Year.
The Waterfront will boast various music acts, satellite link-ups to other cities across the globe and the Dunhill Millennium Fireworks – all free of charge. But officials warn the area will be closed off once all parking lots are full; pedestrians will be allowed in only if booked into one of the restaurants.
The Waterfront’s BMW Pavilion is preparing a feast for 1 000 guests to listen to live jazz, enjoy a cigar or two and indulge in gourmet food – all for the bargain price of R15 000.
A ride in the cable car up Table Mountain any time during the night to prepare for the sunrise at 5.58am on January 1 2000 will set mountain lovers back R65. They might even catch a glimpse of South African Airways’s “flight of fancy” jet, which will fly revellers on a round trip from Johannesburg to Cape Town that night.
A “spectacular light show” from the mountain is also promised. The Mountain Club will be on standby in case partygoers do something silly as result of overindulging in alcohol.
Nature lovers will meanwhile treat themselves at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens with a picnic basket to celebrate to the sounds of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra in the shadow of the towering mountains.
The Mother City’s large gay community is hosting an open-air bash in the CBD. For R100 the “night of carnival fun” includes the Mr and Miss Gay Millennium Competition, cocktail bars, food, fire dancers and prize draws.
“People will be in such a party mood that the weather will not make a difference,” says one of the organisers, Leon van der Merwe, who has spent nine months planning the bash.
The River Club in Observatory is hosting what has become Africa’s largest end-of- the-year party for the fifth time with the motto “Don’t look back”.
For those determined to have the once- in-a-millennium party stretch over three days, there are two options: the Party 2000 & After at the Tableview Soccer Club and Gardens Technikon rugby field, or the South Africa 2000: The Millennium Live Trance Event from between R60 and R300 in Houhoek Valley, 85km outside Cape Town. Gospel music is on the agenda at the Good Hope Centre, with rapper MC Hammer and a 2 000-strong choir at a cost of R200, or the Portlands Sports Field in Mitchells Plain with a R10 cover charge.
And for those who have not yet partied themselves out on January 1, the traditional Cape Minstrel Carnival hits the streets with a procession of colourful and noisy troupes.