NYE runs smoothly in old village

In stark contrast to previous years, business owners in the old Ballito village are relatively pleased with crowd behaviour during the annual New Year’s Eve street party.
The event has left business owners seething in the past, with many of them complaining about the mess left behind, rowdy party goers and inconvenience caused by the influx of people.
This year’s party saw over 9000 people cramming into the Ballito village. The party itself required a lot of planning and in past years businesses in the village have complained about their businesses being prejudiced.
Inus van Schalkwyk from Cyber View Letting was concerned that restaurants in and around the village lost out on customers as parking was scant during the set-up.
“I felt sorry for the restaurants and coffee shops. If they cannot get their customers in they lose out.
From Monday, I would say that more than half the parking in front of Crawdaddy’s, Gianni’s and Milk Café was taken up by the setup,” he said.
However, a number of a businesses in the village were quite happy with the build up and execution of this year’s bash.
Denise Bowditch, Remax Dolphin Coast’s sales manager, was impressed with the organisation of the event.
“We were contacted a while before the event and the organisers tried very hard to keep us happy,” she said.
Bowditch and her staff were also able to access their premises up until the late afternoon on new years eve as the setup was being finalised.
Peggy Blackmore from Head First hair studio shared Bowditch’s sentiments.
“We did not have any problems, nothing was broken or anything like that. We wish they would test their sound levels a little bit longer next time,” she said with a smile.
The Village Laundry’s Jimmy Trevorrow also felt that the organisation was far better than previous years.
“They were very accommodating and let us know well in advance about proceedings,” said Trevorrow.
“It’s once a year, so it really is not a problem for us,” he said.
Sawagat North Indian restaurants’s co-owner Dharminder Kumar was busy into the early hours of the new year cooking meals for revellers.
“Everything was fine, they gave us complimentary tickets and a parking pass and the organisers came around every hour during the evening to ask if we were doing alright. It was very good, we were open until 4am.”