Umm Muhammed Umar

Despite concerns over the new Covid-19 Omicron variant, Ballito Rage festival organisers have given the event the green light. The festival had been scheduled to take place from Tuesday, 30th November, to Monday 6 December. Rage is an annual South African electronic music festival held to coincide with the end of the South African final matric exam.

Last year’s event had been a super spreader, which resulted in more than 840 people testing positive for Covid-19.

Darren Sandras, a spokesperson for the event organisers, claimed, “Ballito Rage reiterates that is has all available Covid-19 safety precautions in place, well beyond those mandated by government and advised by our highly skilled Covid-19 team.” He said that all staff and attendees would be required to produce digital proof that they had been vaccinated, in order to gain entry to the festival, as well as present a negative Covid-19 test. Two Rapid Antigen tests will also have to be taken during the Rage week.

It is interesting to note that, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, two attendees at the 2020 Ballito Rage festival , had tested positive before the event, but had still chosen to attended. News24 reported that the NICD had launched an investigation after a Hillcrest doctor alerted the Institute to a spike in Covid-19 cases among young people who had attended a Rage festival in Ballito. The NICD said that attendance indicated a lack of discipline and irresponsible risk behaviour.