DURBAN may be in danger of losing the high-profile Top Gear Festival after a city official said the motoring event had failed to meet financial expectations.
Talks to save the Durban Top Gear Festival are under way between KwaZulu-Natal economic development and tourism MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu, and Top Gear owners and organisers. Top Gear is a British TV series about motor vehicles, and is the most widely watched factual TV programme in the world.
The show is presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. They were all in Durban at the weekend to present the event the city has hosted for the past three years.
"All I can say at this stage is that there are negotiations to save Top Gear. It is still too early speak about (the outcomes of the talks). But (MEC) Mabuyakhulu and the department are doing all they can to save the Top Gear Festival and hopefully the show will be here in 2015," said the MEC’s spokesman, Bheko Madlala.
A city official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the event was not making enough money.
On Sunday, Top Gear Durban organisers’ spokeswoman Alison Fyfe-Turck said she was not at liberty to disclose the show’s financial health. The event’s Saturday leg had done "very well", attended by more than 30,000 paying ticket holders, she said, adding that she was confident the Top Gear event would not be canned. It was held in the 85,000-seat Moses Mabhida stadium.
Philip Sithole, eThekwini municipality’s head of tourism and economic development, said the event had put the city on the map of international destinations for motor sports tourism.
Top Gear organisers and government officials say last year ’s festival was attended by 67,000 car and speed enthusiasts from all over South Africa. Durban hotels had reported near-capacity bookings at the weekend.
A few years ago businessman Tokyo Sexwale’s sponsored A1 Grand Prix motor race in the city was forced to stop after facing a similar problem.
-Business Day Live
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