After facing growing concerns and criticism for operating during the Covid-19 pandemic, this year’s Ballito Rage Festival has been cancelled. The change in plans is due to 36 positive Covid-19 cases among the event’s guests and staff.
Picture: Getaway Gallery
The Ballito Rage festival is extremely popular among the South African youth as an annual end-of-year party for matriculants. Every year matric graduates, university students and other eager party people flock to this festival to celebrate the closing of the year. This year, President Cyril Ramaphosa emphasised his wariness of the event and firmly suggested that the festival be postponed.
The organisers of the Ballito Rage festival insisted that they would enforce Covid-19 compliance with measures to guard against becoming a super-spreader of Covid-19. The festival confidently began on Tuesday, November 30 but despite complying with covid-19 protocols, 32 guests and four staff members were infected with Covid-19.
In a public statement, the Ballito Rage Festival addressed its guests saying that ‘whilst we understand the disappointment that this causes for those who were looking forward to enjoying the festival, these are unprecedented times. We appreciate everyone’s understanding and support. Ticket holders will receive further information in the coming days via email’.
The festival has previously faced criticism for taking place in 2020 despite warnings about Covid-19. According to News24, the event resulted in mass Covid-19 infections among staff and other attendees with more than 800 people testing positive for Covid-19.
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