The abrupt and premature shutting down of the Winter Wonderland Festival in Gordon’s Bay over the past weekend has been blamed by organisers on the inclement weather, but according to the City of Cape Town the event wasn’t even permitted to proceed in the first place.

For weeks controversy surrounded the much-anticipated Winter Wonderland festival, first due to “exorbitant fees for vendors”, which later snowballed into questions as to where the money was going and who was benefitting the most.

Last week the City of Cape Town confirmed that no permits had been issued and the event was not permitted to continue, and police confirmed that event organiser Ed Bham of the Ed Bham Foundation was arrested and charged with fraud in connection with a case dating back to 2015. (“Winter ‘Blunder’land,” DistrictMail & Helderberg Gazette, 26 July 2023).

Non-compliance

Bham said early on Saturday (29 July) this prompted the decision as event organiser to suspend the rides and trading and invariably cancelling this year’s Winter Wonderland. Just a day before (Friday 28 July) Luthando Tyhalibongo, spokesperson for the City of Cape Town, confirmed that the appeals authority has upheld the Events Permit Office’s decision not to permit the event due to non-compliance with the requirement of the Events Bylaw.

“Proceeding with an unpermitted event would be in contravention of the Events By-Law and the Safety at Sports and Recreational Events Act (Sasrea), which will result in a fine for the event organiser and possibly criminal charges,” said Tyhalibongo.

Appealing the decision

Asked to comment, Bham contested that the appeal was part of the City’s process and still insisted that it had nothing to do with the event being cancelled.

“It was a condonement application. The appeal was part of their process, but they received all of the documents on Wednesday 12 July, and we find it quite peculiar and strange that they claim that they never received it. That is why we appealed their outcome, but because of the pressures of time it was stuck between our legal teams and that is why the permit office couldn’t issue anything from their side because they never had the authority to. Our decision to cancel the event was purely based on the weather,” explained Bham.

Despite this, a parade still took place on Friday evening and a launch party on Thursday (27 July) at Krystal Beach Hotel in Gordons Bay, and were both successful.

It was the actual Winter Wonderland Festival that hit a snag. “I know most vendors traded until midnight in the glass marquee and a few in the exposed open areas suffered a weather wipeout and were requested to shut down earlier as some electrical safety issues were brought to my attention,” said Bham.

In communication sent out early on Saturday morning, he said “some misinformation” was being spread by Garth van Zyl, the designated safety officer at the event.

“Van Zyl was disgruntled after having been removed from the event organising team earlier that afternoon,” the communication to vendors said. Van Zyl, in response, also sent a message out to vendors stating he was “setting the record straight”, and the decision to cancel the event had nothing to do with him.

Disgruntled vendors, service providers

Van Zyl said he took the decision to resign, both for himself and his team at Medicare EMR, due to the event organisers’ “several attempts” to make them look incompetent.

“The decision to resign came on Friday evening (28 July) shortly after discovering the main stage at the festival had lost power and I went to investigate thinking something serious had happened.

“I then noticed the large presence of the law enforcement unit across the road and went over to find out what was going on. Law enforcement came to shut the event down as it was taking place without City of Cape Town approval.”

Van Zyl mentioned he will submit his final report to various authorities involved for further investigation.

“This kind of conduct by an event organiser should not be tolerated, as it plays with people’s livelihoods and even can result in their destruction.”

Hayley Fensham, who had a waffle-on-a-stick stall at the festival, is devastated as she suffered lots of waste due to the cancellation of the festival.

She said: “I have been doing the Winter Wonderland for the past five years and I expected to make R30 000-ish. The money I made didn’t even cover the festival costs.”

She, however, thanked the Gordon’s Bay Dutch Reformed church, in Beach Road, and the Link Road Market for giving vendors the opportunity to sell some of their stock and at least make some money over the weekend. “We will refund the vendors for the days they (vendors) couldn’t trade, which were Saturday and Sunday,” Bham said.

“Please accept my apology for loss of trade, I assure you we have every intention to remedy this.”