After two years of not being able to host the flagship Nelson
Mandela Bay Splash Festival, the Nelson Mandela Bay
Municipality is ready and excited to welcome thousands of
visitors for the 30th Edition of the Festival over the Easter
Weekend.
The city will deliver a revitalised event with food, music and
sport taking centre stage. The Splash Festival was last held
in 2019 due to the COVID-19 regulations.
The four-day action-packed family festival encompasses the
core elements that have made Splash Festival a major event
on the NMB calendar for the past 30 years, with new events
and content added to the festival, to ensure that the festival
stays relevant.
During the media launch at the Gqeberha City Hall this morning, April 12, 2022, NMBM Executive Mayor, Eugene
Johnson said: “This year visitors to the Splash Festival will
be thrilled by new attractions in the form of food tents and
trucks and wine pairings. Regular attractions which have
proven to be popular with festival goers such as watersports,
beach volleyball, crafts and stalls, will also be part of this
year’s event. We are excited by what Splash has to offer this
year. We are sure that our residents and visitors will create
memorable and special moments. Stage entertainment, food
stalls, crafters and watersports will be forming part of this
year’s programme.”
The mayor said that music lovers can expect to be entertained by
the NMB’s very own Ami Faku, Early B and Ruhan Du Toit, who will be sharing the stage with over 40 local and national
artists and performers.
All the events are free entry to the public, however, on
a first-come, first-serve basis and all the details are
available on www.nmbsplash.co.za.
In a major change this year, the festival will be split over two
sites, with King’s Beach hosting the entertainment and food
attractions and the watersports and beach volleyball staying
at Hobie Beach.
“By moving the festival to King’s Beach,
the festival organisers will be able to fence
off the festival and have better control of access
to the attractions. It will also mean extra parking for
festival goers and will help to alleviate traffic congestion in
Summerstrand. For the first time, we will be able to manage
the sale of alcohol in the controlled and highly managed
environments of a beer garden and wine tent,” Johnson added.
The programme and content have also been designed to
appeal to a wide demographic, representative of the citizens
of the greater Nelson Mandela Bay and to attract visitors
from out of town to the Splash Festival and, by extension, the
region. As the second largest Easter Festival in South Africa,
the festival boasts over 120 stalls including: original crafts
and an amazing array of food stalls for all tastes.
NMBM Acting Executive Director for Sport, Recreation, Arts
and Culture, Dr Kithi Ngesi, said that festival goers would be
spoilt for choice.
“We are excited to present the new food court in association
with Gqeberha’s iconic Baakens Food Truck Funday. The
food court will feature a bigger canopy over the area, with a
stage and performances. We have partnered with Baakens
to bring a new variety of food stalls to Splash Festival 2022
– 2024.
“The range will include: vegetarian, halal, kosher
and vegan options. All food vendors are vetted to ensure
compliance with R638 regulations. We will still make most
of the slots available to the regular food vendors who have
been severely impacted by the Disaster Management Act
restrictions on this industry. In addition, we will also be having
a comedy show where Jason Goliath will be the headlining
act supported by our local comedians,” she said, adding that
headline chefs, Reuben Riffel, and Pete Goffe-Wood were
part of this year’s programme.
