Carnival Tattoo

Alderman JP Smith agreed to have the Cape Town Carnival logo tattooed on his back at a special function at the Civic Centre in Cape Town recently. Alderman Smith had previously remarked to Carnival CEO Michael Worsnip that if the Carnvial managed to fill Long St with people then he would tattoo the Carnival logo on his back. As you can see from the picture on the right Long St was indeed very full, and when Michael reminded JP of his bet he sportingly agreed to be branded by tattoo artist Miriam Moore.

More Carnival pictures

Cape Town Carnival a huge success

Long Street was fantasy-filled on Saturday as thousands of spectators lined the Carnival Corridor to catch a glimpse of the dancers, the floats and large puppets. The procession got off to a dream start with the roar of 100 Harleys and ended with bright lights and samba, Rio-style. "This was an event to remember because it was simply magical," said Carnival spokesman, Theo Koopman. For the many community dance schools across the city it was a dream opportunity to dance to a capacity crowd in Long Street that rivalled the world cup crowd with one dancer adding that it was unbelievable to dance for tens of thousands of cheering fans.

Carnival floats and costume production in full swing

With just a few weeks to go to the Cape Town Carnival, all the costumes and floats have been conceived and designed, and production is in full swing for the parade on March 19, 2011.
The costumes and accessories are being assembled on production lines under the eye of experienced costumiers Maria von Egity and Noel Hiebner. Maria and Noel have already overseen the process of taking measurements and conducting fittings for the over 2000 performers and lead dancers who will be parading down Long St.
A workforce of 35 people has been working six days a week to produce the costumes for each of the 10 pods of up to 200 performers and six showgirls and the workshop is alive with anticipation, excitement and about 10 000 colourful feathers!.
Over at Carnival World in the giant warehouse at Culemborg, the floats are being assembled by a team of 30 workers supervised by Brad Baard. Experienced professional set builders from the film industry are working with local artisans – and are passing on their skills so that a trained workforce will be available for next year's carnival.
The spectacular giant floats are being built on custom-made trailers which will be recycled for 2012. To further limit the size of the Carnival's carbon footprint the floats will be non-motorised and pushed up Long St by volunteers.

Brazilian Float Builders

Yesterday the Carnival committee met with three professional float builders who showed us the nuts and bolts of float building Rio-style. These guys were professional full-time float designers and builders (there are apparently hundreds who work all year round in Rio) and their presentation included pics and explanations about how to keep floats light strong and weather worthy.

Meeting with Community leaders

The Cape Town Carnival committee, including Jay Douwes, left, met with the community co-ordinators of the carnival performers last night to discuss the 10 pods, costumes, music and floats as well as logistics for the big night.

10 floats and 2500 performers

After much debate and discussion the final line-up for next year's Cape Town carnival has been decided – there will be 10 pods each with a float, 200 costumed dancers and 10 showgirls or boys with dazzling and extravagant costumes leading the way.
The 10 pods are:
African beginning
Birds of a feather
Energy
Planet warriors
Colour the world
World without borders
Marching in time
Ancient and modern
Dance then!
Free to be you and me.
In between there will be marching bands, giant zorbs, puppets and other performers.