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Year 5 • Tuesday 14 April 2015 | Tel. 028 214 1294
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Bob Skinstad, centre, Marc Lottering, next to him and Dieter Odendaal from Creation in the Hemel en Aarde valley, far right, on Friday afternoon. Creation welcomed Skinstad and his entourage to the estate to showcase the tourism activities the area has to offer. Marc Lottering is heading to The Caledon Casino, Hotel, Spa and Entertainment for a night of fun on 2 May. PHOTO: ANNETTE THERON
Rave party destroys Easter peace
Residents and farmers of Caledon and Tesselaarsdal are up in arms about a rave party that was hosted on Hillside farm over Easter weekend, disturbing the peace. “I feel strongly that an event such as this should never be allowed again, especially anywhere near a populated area, says Iain Buchholz, a resident of Tesselaarsdal. “On Good Friday we became aware of a continuous doef doef music sound coming and going with the wind.” He says on Saturday afternoon the very loud and never-ending sound was so unnerving that he began phoning neighbours to find out if they knew where it was coming from. “The first neighbour I spoke to said he thought it was in his head, another said it was in his lounge – Oom Ava is 91 years old – and the third one had such a headache he couldn’t think straight.” Buchholz says on Sunday morning their guest left for home earlier, apologising but said that they couldn’t take it anymore. The music carried on throughout Sunday and non-stop
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during the night. “On Monday morning we had to go for a drive to get away from the noise.” Kenneth Prior, who lives on Glen Hart on Solitaire, ten kilometres outside Tesselaarsdal, said he also had guestsattheirfarmwhocouldn’ttolerate the noise any longer. “After an entire night of doef doef music they opted to go home.” Prior says on Sunday he called the police to report the noise disturbance. The police told him they were on their way and had already received several complaints. Another irate resident says this is not a first. “This is the fourth party I have had to endure.” She says a Vortex party was hosted over Easter last year, then a Sprung event in September where the noise lasted for 24 hours.” “Also, I don’t see how it benefits our town economically, as there are stall holders on Hillside. It is only the owner of the farm who benefits financially and the rest of us have to suffer.” The family are in close proximity to Hillside and she says she started getting heart palpitations and feared for her sanity. “My children were unable to sleep and I had to fit them with ear plugs.”
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The resident lodged complaints with the police and Theewaterskloof. Susannah van Straaten spoke to the Gazette on behalf of the Van Straaten family, owners of Hillside farm. She said this is the second year they have rented their venue for parties. “Last year for the 2014 Easter Vortex in April and then another party, Alien Safari’s Sprung event on 6 September. This year’s Vortex is our only such event. We feel that one event per year of this nature is sufficient, in terms of neighbour relations and the fact that it slots nicely into our farming schedule. “As long as TWK Municipality sanctions the event and issues licenses, and Vortex wants to hold it on our farm we will continue to host this event annually.” She said she is saddened to hear about the complaints as Vortex (as per instructions from TWK) employed a sound engineer to take decibel readings every two hours during the event at various places and distances from the farm. “And those readings were within the legal limits. I myself took a reading at 06:17 on Monday 6 March at the furthest perimeter point of our farm
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in the direction of Tesselaarsdal and Solitare, and measured an average 32 decibels.” Van Straaten says the main stage music started at 14:00 on Saturday and ended at 16:00 on Monday. “We did get consent from the majority of our neighbours. Our nearest neighbour, whose house is about 1,5 km away, issued a complaint to the municipality.” She said they offered to compensate them R5 000 for the weekend to perhaps go and have a nice weekend away from the music but the offer was not accepted. Van Straaten says they counted approximately 1 500 vehicles on the farm and some attendees said they had stopped in Caledon to buy goods of at least R200 or more. “I think we can safely assume that at least a quarter of a million rand was spent in Caledon over the Easter weekend.” She says the majority of the people attending the party are from Cape Town. “But I also spoke to people from Hermanus, Stanford, Villiersdorp, Grabouw, Napier, Bredasdorp, Mossel Bay, Worcester, Wellington, Strand, Caledon and Johannesburg Van Straaten says she is aware that
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the noise is an issue. “However, legal requirements were met. We are aware that some people are offended that it is held over Easter, however we live in a multi-denominational society where freedom of worship is a constitutional right. I had a meeting with the dominee of Caledon’s largest NGK and neither he, nor the church, had any issues with Vortex being held over Easter.” Van Straaten said Vortex has a zerotolerance policy towards drugs and provides a drug-counselling and information stall at the party. She said the party is strictly over 18s only and IDs are vigorously checked. “It is a legal, well-organised fun event – not an anti-Christian, drug-fuelled orgy.” Capt Gerrit Botes, spokesperson for Caledon police, says the event was ratedalow-riskevent,accordingtothe regulations of Act 2 of 2010 of the events act. Botes said over Easter weekend 77 complaints were lodged and only one of these was a complaint about the music at Hillside. “The police spoke to an organiser and the music was turned down.” The municipality’s response will be published in the Gazette of 21 April.
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