The official end of slavery, emancipation Day, 1st December 1834, was celebrated by street parades, bonfires and fireworks. It is believed that the carnival tradition of Cape Town began here. Cape Town's biggest and most boisterous carnival is the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival which sees the city celebrating the advent of the New Year with numerous festivals, competitions and extravagant parades in a dazzling display of colourful shiny uniforms, painted faces and funky banjo tunes that accompany the towns traditional folk songs. The parade is also known locally as the ‘Coon Carnival’ (‘coon’ meaning a member of a minstrel troupe) among the Afrikaans-speaking ‘coloured’ community who make up the majority of the performers. The traditional event began in the 19th century when minstrel entertainers on American cruise ships stopped off in Cape Town; their sounds and styles were incorporated into the New Year festivities of the newly freed Malay slaves. The celebrations commence on New Year’s Day and the party continues well into January with grand street parades; singing, dancing, costume competitions and marches through the streets. The minstrels continuously borrow from a variety of cultural sources to spice up the parade and music. While the minstrels' repertoire largely consists of folk songs, they also perform Broadway show tunes and dance to hip-hop and Latin tracks as they parade.
The street parade on the first weekend starts in District Six and there are plenty of South African hand-made wares and yummy local delicacies on sale at stalls along the route, attracting crowds of over 80,000. The event then turns to its contests. Dancing, singing, field events and costume competitions are performed at the Green Point Stadium, where locals with a thirst for the limelight can compete for a prize at the grand finale at the end of the carnival.
Former President Nelson Mandela endorsed the event in 1986 and is now a patron of the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association. Previously under apartheid the Carnival and it’s patrons faced many challenges. Segregation and discrimination made it more and more difficult for the people to organise the shows and parades, often being told that the stadiums and grounds were off-limits. But today the outlook for this colourful parade looks to one day outshine the likes of Rio or New Orleans, so keep an eye out. The details for this whole carnival are a little last-minute, so ask around the town for further details.