The City Walk is a new storytelling route that encompasses the Company's Gardens, St George's Mall and Fanwalk. It will be activated every third Saturday of the month with a City Walk Saturday - when events, installations, experimental ideas and art will create a buzz in the area. The next ones take place on 16 May and then 20 June from 10am to 2pm.
Cape Town Partnership's, Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana, said: "The first City Walk Saturday was an indication of the potential to redefine public space in the Cape Town CBD as an inclusive space for all Capetonians. City Walk Saturdays is not an event created in isolation, but forms part of an evolving perspective shift of the way that Capetonians engage with each other and their city through public space."
The City Walk aims to surface elements like history, culture, public art and food as well as the formal and informal retail that are already on the walk but the Cape Town Partnership also hopes that citizens will come forward to give different perspectives along the walk.
Said Makalima-Ngewana: "The City Walk must be a space in which people can see themselves and be part of creating and sharing their own stories; it's about creating a space where conversations can happen and connections can be made between a diversity of people."
Locals and visitors will be able to access the City Walk area's cultural, architectural and historical landmarks through the route map (available at outlets along the way and through Cape Town Tourism) and way-finding signs at all times (i.e. not just limited to City Walk Saturdays). Local tour guides have also come on board to recognise the City Walk and it has been included into the Cape Town Big 6, which is now the Cape Town Big 7.
This past weekend's City Walk Saturday also encompassed an Instameet, with Instagrammers coming together to explore the Walk. The hashtag #walkcapetown trended at number one in South Africa on Saturday, 18 April.
For more information, go to www.capetownpartnership.co.za.
