Over 700 trees in downtown Cape Town, wrapped in colourful cloth, have become the talk of the town thanks to an uplifting message from the Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID) that the CBD is back in business after the blows dealt by the pandemic.

Dubbed the ‘Rainbow Tree Project’, at least 730 trees throughout the CCID’s 1.6sqkm area have been wrapped in more than 3km metres of fabric.

The trees are visible on the Foreshore district at the lower end of Heerengracht, and in Christiaan Barnard St and Hertzog Boulevard. Trees have also been decorated in the CCID’s three other precincts, including St George’s Mall, and Bree and Waterkant streets.

“This is an expansion of our successful 2020/21 ‘Come Back To Town’ campaign with the view of creating a positive vibe in the CBD so that visitors and office workers can once again enjoy the space. We invite people to have a picnic lunch or their takeout latte under the trees to inject some positivity in their day,” says CCID CEO, Tasso Evangelinos.

“The wider aim is to continue to invigorate the inner-city economy, which suffered greatly during the darker days of the pandemic.”

The CCID will also run a ‘Rainbow Tree Selfie’ competition on social media, inviting Capetonians to submit selfies of themselves enjoying the trees. A weekly winner will be chosen, and the entrant stands to win a retail voucher.