A major shareholder and one of the founders of the Ballito and Plett Rage festival, Greg Walsh has reportedly accused the media of creating panic about the events that led them to be cancelled.
Both festivals were cancelled last week after guests and staff tested positive for COVID-19. According to a statement released by festival organisers on Wednesday, December 1, the festival opened for the first time on Tuesday, November 30 with extraordinary COVID-19 protocols in place, including mandatory vaccinations for all staff and guests and pre-arrival tests.
Expressing his outrage on social media, Walsh said: “It was extraordinary to listen to the media lie and lie and spread panic and spread hysteria and call on politicians for us to cancel and call on parents for us to cancel and just continue to say things that weren’t true.”
Also read: Organisers call off Ballito Rage following several COVID-19 cases
Walsh reportedly accuses the media of informing the public poorly regarding the new variant and COVID-19 to simply get more likes, clicks and shares on their media sites.
Walsh also made it known that they did everything they possibly could to ensure a safe festival including making representations to the National and provincial health departments, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, and even the World Health Organisation.
He warned that matriculants will still have a party somewhere, somehow. “They have had 12 years at school. They have had all of their freedoms curbed and this was their opportunity to come,” he said.
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Picture: Instagram / Greg Walsh
