Controversy surrounds the much-anticipated Winter Wonderland festival – heralded as one of the biggest in the Helderberg, but which now hangs in the balance following confirmation by the City of Cape Town that no permits had been issued and the event was not permitted to continue. This was on Monday 24 July, just days before the festival was scheduled to begin on Thursday (27 July) on Main and Bikini Beach in Gordon’s Bay.
And in the interim rumours 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 were confirmed by provincial police.
Event organisers, however, insisted “all the permits for the event have been in order and approved” and initially denied any arrest had taken place, claiming it was “false information and a deliberate attempt to derail the event”.
Gordon Burnham-King, “owner” of the festival and chairman of Gordon’s Bay Business Forum (GBBF), stated: “The Ed Bham Foundation and the executive team have put in place the necessary interim protection order against anyone spreading misinformation, misrepresentation or wilfully bringing the brand into disrepute.”
‘False pretences’
In contrast, Warrant Officer Joseph Swartbooi, media liaison officer for the provincial police, said the suspect, a 43-year-old man, was arrested and detained for fraud and ultimately charged on Friday 21 July.
“Reports suggested the complainant received proof of payment from the suspect in December 2015,” he said. “On further inspection the financial institution could not verify the receipt as a valid one.”
Approached for comment, Bham admitted to being arrested, but countered the allegations and claimed it was done “under false pretences and with a fake document.”
A day after his arrest, on Friday, workers erecting tents at the venue were stopped and began dismantling them following an order by authorities due to no permits being in place.
Again Burnham-King countered this, and stated the tent hiring company had always been in possession of all the permits required.
He blamed the dismantling of tents on “road repairs due to our faulty sewage system, which created a high traffic zone”.
But according to Luthando Tyhalibongo, spokesperson for the City of Cape Town, the City’s Events Permit Office was issuing the event organiser with a non-permit letter.
“This means the event was not permitted to continue owing to the outstanding documents,” he said. “The event organiser was informed all plans were to be submitted by Wednesday 19 July for assessment before a permit is issued, but the event organiser missed the deadline.”
The event organiser can appeal this decision to the appeals authority,” Tyhalibongo pointed out.
With all this said Burnham-King confirmed with ‘great certainty’ that Winter Wonderland would go ahead as planned. “We are all looking forward to an amazing Winter Wonderland and encourage the community to pull together and participate in making this a huge success.”
Burnham-King reiterated that Gordon’s Bay Tourism and Gordon’s Bay Business Forum were in full support of the event.
Uproar about pricing
Members of the community previously voiced their concerns regarding ticket and stall pricing, which caused an uproar on social media.
Hayley Fensham, who has a Waffle on a stick stall at the festival, initially complained about the vendor prices, but was happy organisers had lowered the price afterwards.
“The prices are quite a lot lower. I take my hat off to the organisers for listening and lowering the prices.”
Parking issues were also addressed, and Burnham-King confirmed parking for Winter Wonderland would be at Hendon Park.
“On event days Beach Road will be closed from the BP to Zest, which the traffic department is controlling. We are fully committed and working with the Ed Bham Foundation to see that Winter Wonderland 2023 is a remarkable success. It was courageous and an extraordinary achievement that the foundation has organised the event in just three months,” concluded Burnham-King.
