For the first time, an event has become
a member company of the Proudly South African buy local campaign. It might have
‘International’ in its name, but the DStv Delicious International Food &
Music Festival is Proudly South African.
The Festival will be held once again
this year at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit on 7th & 8th
October. Whilst some of the acts are from overseas, and the food offering
represents many different countries’ cuisines, the Festival features many
established as well as up and coming local artists and the concept and
production of the event is entirely home grown.
“When we approached Proudly South
African earlier this year to become partners, they automatically assumed that
our Festival was an international model that had been imported into South
Africa,” said Lloyd Cornwall, Festival Director. “When they realised that the
Festival has its roots firmly in South Africa, then we were able to start
talking,” he added.
“In addition to the event providing 2
days of family entertainment, the business end of the Festival is what impressed
us as a campaign,” said Proudly South African CEO, Eustace Mashimbye. “The event represents millions of Rands in
local procurement and is a significant creator of jobs both directly and
indirectly which is exactly the key message we preach – buy local to create
jobs. The DStv Delicious Festival team is living this message.”
Already committed to sourcing as many local
products and services that it takes to put on a multi-million Rand event, for
this year’s edition of DStv Delicious, the organisers have worked their way
through Proudly South African’s database of members to procure as much as they
can from those companies that are part of and support the buy local campaign.
From security services to a travel
agent to put festival packages together, from printers to toilet roll suppliers,
they are able to keep their spend almost 100% local. Their overall needs are
vast from legal services, safety and security, marquees and tents, sound and
structural engineers and set builders, cleaning and waste management services,
uniforms, standby medical services, astro turf, hostesses and runners, amongst
much else.
Said Chief Officer Marketing &
Communications at ProudlySA, Happy MaKhumalo Ngidi, “I have been attending DStv
Delicious since its inception and have always loved it, but had no idea of its
origins. The passion with which it is put together and the commitment of the
team not only to put on an amazing event, but to make a difference to the city
and province in which it is staged, is very meaningful for Proudly South
African.”
In addition to what they have sourced
for themselves, the DStv Delicious International Food
& Music Festival will generate revenue for local hotels, guest houses
and transport companies. Forty per cent of the gourmet market traders are local
SMMEs, who will benefit from the exposure to 40 000 visitors, whose average
spend is R2 000.
“The job creation figures are also staggering,”
said Mashimbye. “When we looked at last year’s numbers, we saw that there were
900 crew members working for 10 days, with an additional 3 500 workers taken on
for the duration of the festival. We believe that this event has an impact on
SMMEs, the Gauteng economy and jobs that goes far beyond the 2 days that the
general public experiences. It is a perfect fit with our campaign and we look
forward to working with the DStv Delicious team this year and beyond.”
Proudly South African will have a
dedicated food Village at the Festival featuring a number of its members each
offering something unique and of course, delicious.
