Pick n Pay Knysna Oyster Festival – community participation initiatives
17. Jun, 2009
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KNYSNA: The Pick n Pay Knysna Oyster Festival is not just about bringing visitors to the town during the quiet winter months. The Festival has a strong community participation component which actively seeks to involve local communities in the event so that they can benefit immediately and in the long term.
The Local Loeries project, started in 2005, ensures that opportunities are created for the community to benefit from the festival socially and economically by encouraging the development of local sporting talent (opportunities are created to compete in Festival sporting events), and facilitating the growth of tourism SMMEs (catering businesses, community B&Bs, event management businesses, cleaning companies, informal vendors, transport services, and so on) which can take part in and benefit from the Festival but are also sustainable in the long term. This is done through ongoing mentorship and sponsorship programmes, which are coordinated by Knysna Tourism’s Development Officer, Glendyrr Fick and are being made possible this year through funding from the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport.
Says Fick: “Over the past four years the project has resulted in hundreds of Local Loeries of all ages participating in up to 10 different Oyster Festival events. Teams have been trained to provide a cleaning service which works during the Festival as well as the Knysna Gastronomica Food Festival in September. Groups are also regularly trained by Kilzer’s Kitchen Basics to participate in the Pick n Pay Oyster & Wine Mardi Gras presented by Tabasco, and use their newly learnt skills afterwards in their local businesses. One of the participants, Cecile Louw, was able to set up her own catering business, Uppa-Hill Caterers after the 2007 Festival , while another, Elmarie Jonas has used her skills to grow her business, LTEE’s Community Catering.”
This year three teams will participate in the Oyster & Wine Mardi Gras – Hornlee Caterers, LTEE’s Community Restaurant and Eden Campus. Once again they will receive training from Kilzers Kitchen Basics. The teams’ participation is being sponsored by Seafood Safari, Chatters and Gino’s Bistro.
Following the success of the 2008 programmes, in which more than 500 children participated, a Pick n Pay Library activity programme involving libraries in the Greater Knysna area will roll out an activity programme involving cake decorating and colouring competitions.
Local community service providers will also be used to do brochure distribution before and during the festival.
For more information about the Local Loeries contact Glendyrr Fick on 044 382 5510. For information about the Pick n Pay Knysna Oyster Festival visit www.oysterfestival.co.za.
My name is Muzi Mohale a full-time travel blogger, your host at Travelwires.com responsible for all editorial on this blog. I blog about the travel and tourism industry in Africa. Apart from blogging about tourism, I also run 
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