City cautious on festival funds

AS the who's who of Nelson Mandela Bay rub shoulders at this weekend's Fairview Festival of Racing, the municipality will be gauging the success of the accompanying whisky and cigar festival before it decides whether to plough half a million rand into the event.

With the city's history of dishing out millions of rands for events which later either fail to take place or to garner enough interest, it is not taking any chances, according to economic development and tourism boss Anele Qaba.

He has defended the metro's decision to sponsor the whisky and cigar festival, saying there was an available budget for project development which his department planned to use to host events that attracted throngs of tourists to the Bay.

The racing festival's main event will be today, and on Sunday there will be another race and the cigar and whisky festival.

"These Mickey Mouse events that we've hosted before are not making the impact we would like on tourism," Qaba said. - Rochelle de Kock