The Mission for Inner City Cape Town activates the CBD for a month-end weekend of food, creativity and car-free public spaces
A full weekend of public space activations, creative experiences and open-street programming will take place across Cape Town’s CBD at the end of May, as the Mission for Inner City Cape Town continues its work to encourage people to experience the Inner City beyond the traditional workweek.
From Friday, 29 May to Sunday, 31 May, the Inner City will host a series of interconnected public activations including Street Feast, Inner City Saturdays and working with the Young Urbanists, the return of Bree Street Sundays. Each is designed to encourage people to walk, explore, gather and reconnect with the city.
The programme forms part of the Mission’s broader placemaking efforts aimed at creating a more vibrant, walkable and people-focused inner city.
Street Feast returns to Thibault Square on Friday, 29 May from 11:30am to 2pm, bringing together food vendors, live music and midday public space activation in the heart of the CBD.
Food vendors confirmed so far include Sticky Lips, Ishushu and Herenity, with additional vendors still to be announced. Entertainment for the afternoon will be provided by the Jason Marshall Quartet.
On Saturday, 30 May from 10am to 2pm, Inner City Saturdays will celebrate “making” in the Inner City through the inaugural edition of Open Ateliers – a programme giving the public behind-the-scenes access to local creative businesses, studios and cultural spaces where products, artworks and objects are designed and fabricated.
Participating ateliers include ceramics studios Anthony Shapiro Ceramics and HAN; jewellery design studios Anna Rosholt Jewellery Design, Black Betty Design, Ida Elsje Jewellery and Philippa Green Jewellery; clothing brands METRO= HANDMADE and Alexandra Höjer; perfumery Gozdava 1590; and open artist studios at Lemkus Gallery featuring artists-in-residence Aaron Philander and Smiso Cele.
The Open Ateliers programme is free and open to the public.
Inner City Saturdays will also feature a free guided walking tour titled Studio City!: A Tour through Five Centuries of Cape Town’s Creativity, led by Cameron Peters of Cape Town Heritage Tours
The two-hour tour will explore the history of making, manufacturing and creativity in Cape Town’s historic city centre and will depart at 10am from outside the Cape Heritage Hotel.
The weekend will conclude with the return of Bree Street Sundays on Sunday, 31 May, with Bree Street closed to vehicles between Wale and Strand Streets, including Shortmarket Street, from 10am to 5pm.
The open-street activation, presented in partnership with the Mayor’s Office and the City of Cape Town’s Urban Mobility Directorate, forms part of an ongoing street experiment exploring how public streets can become safer, greener and more people-friendly.
Visitors will be encouraged to walk, sit, garden, eat and spend time together throughout the day while enjoying a winter edition of Bree St Food Sundays, green activities and urban gardening activations hosted by Vincent Truter of the Mission, as well as additional programming still to be announced.
The final edition of Bree St Food Sundays will take place from 12pm to 5pm as part of the activation.
“Cape Town’s Inner City has so much to offer beyond being a place people commute into for work,” says Gareth Pearson, Placemaking Lead at the Mission for Inner City CT. “These kinds of activations help people reconnect with the city and with one another. Whether it’s sharing a meal in a public square, exploring the city’s creative spaces, or enjoying the novelty of a people-first street, the goal is to create a more welcoming, walkable and vibrant inner city experience.”
Pearson says consistent activation of public space plays an important role in reshaping how people experience and engage with the CBD.
“Public life in public spaces is what gives cities vitality. The more opportunities we create for people to safely experience the city in engaging ways, the stronger and more connected the inner city becomes.”
To explore partnership opportunities or to learn more about the Mission for Inner City Cape Town visit www.missionforinnercity.org or follow @missionforinnercityct on Instagram and LinkedIn.
