Year-end blow for carnival lovers

Melissa Mpofu, Showbiz Editor
SADC’s biggest New Year’s Eve party, the Victoria Falls Carnival will not be held this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic that has forced local authorities to restrict most public gatherings with concerts being on top of the list.

Organisers of the event who had hoped to go ahead with the party with strict adherence to Covid-19 safety guidelines, were dealt a major blow when the powers that be, recommended that they shelve those plans.

“There’s no carnival this year. We called it quits after Government rejected our proposal to host the event due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” carnival spokesperson Emmanuel Tivatyi said.

“The National Arts Council of Zimbabwe whom we had submitted our request to indicated that they wouldn’t be in a position to sanction the carnival given the insight from the Ministry of Health with regards to functions like festivals.

So definitely, we won’t be hosting the carnival,” added Tivatyi.

Either way, Tivatyi said they were not going to be able to plan for the event now, given that only a few days are left.

For the past seven years, the three-day carnival has been held from December 29 culminating with a fireworks display on New Year’s Eve.

“We don’t have ample time to prepare for the carnival as we don’t want to give our patrons a half-baked cake,” Tivatyi said.

The carnival which had grown tremendously over the years, attracting festival goers from different parts of the world had become a must-attend for many locals as it was the ultimate New Year’s Eve party.

The action-packed carnival was no ordinary event as it was packed with party trains, booze and lots of adrenaline pumping activities.

The performances were always to die for with the general vibe of the event making it the best way to end the year.

However, Tivatyi said the event would definitely return and would be bigger and better.
He said:
“We’ll see next year. Definitely when we do host it, it’ll be something big and a major comeback.”

He hinted that Master KG who is trending globally because of his Jerusalema hit was meant to headline the event as they were in talks with his management.

Last year, the event had performances from Sha Sha, DJ Maphorisa, Shekinah, ExQ and Flying Bantu among many others.

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