Cape Town rolls out longest green carpet, Lion King sung from Table Mountain for 2024 Earthshot Prize Awards

by Thinus Ferreira

Cape Town is rolling out the world's longest green carpet ever on Wednesday night for the 2024 Earthshot Prize Awards and Prince William, with Lebo M. who will sing a goose-flesh-inducing version of The Lion King's "The Circle of Life" together with the Ndlovu Youth Choir from atop Table Mountain.

The British royal is in Cape Town for the week, along with international celebs like Heidi Klum, Davido, Diamond Platnumz, Nina Dobrev, Robert Irwin and others for Wednesday's 2024 Earthsot Prize Awards done from a specially-constructed dome in Green Point that will house 1 000 people.

The Earthshot Prize was founded by the Prince of Wales in 2020 and this year's awards show will announce five winners out of 15 finalists from six continents who will each win £1 million (R22,9 million).

The five categories in which prize money will be awarded include "Protect and restore nature", "Clean our air", "Revive our oceans", "Build a waste-free world" and "Fix our climate".

MultiChoice will broadcast The 2024 Earthshot Prize Awards live on DStv on Wednesday evening in South Africa and throughout sub-Saharan Africa for DStv Premium to DStv Access subscribers as well as on its streaming service Showmax. 

Viewers in the rest of the world can watch the awards live-streamed on YouTube.

The green carpet coverage will live-stream on YouTube from 17:30 on Wednesday for global viewers, followed by the awards streamed for viewers outside of Africa. 

Ebuka Obi-Uchendu and rapper Moozlie will be the green carpet show's hosts.

MultiChoice will show The 2024 Earthshot Prize Awards from 19:30 on Showmax as well as DStv on SuperSport Variety 4 (SA/Rest of Africa), Mzansi Bioskop (SA), Newzroom Afrika (SA), Akwaaba Magic (Rest of Africa), Maisha Magic (Rest of Africa), Africa Magic Family (SA/Rest of Africa).

On Wednesday 1 000 guests will be seated inside the Earthshot Prize Dome erected on the Green Point Common sports ground in Vlei Road where "airport-level security" will be extremely tight for guests as well as the media covering the first-for-Africa event.

The Earthshot Prize Dome next to the Cape Town Stadium is a purpose-built structure for the occasion, designed and engineered in South Africa and used before since the idea and execution proved a winner for MultiChoice's event to relaunch Showmax.

It will be "recycled" and used again, and is the biggest of its kind in Africa, with a width of 36 metres, a height of 15.5 metres and a length of 144 metres - twice as long as a rugby pitch. 

The production of the 2024 EarthShot Prize Awards ceremony has created approximately 650 jobs locally.

Wednesday's ceremony will open with Lebo M. singing "The Circle of Life" from The Lion King, a performance that was pre-recorded atop Table Mountain. 

It's the first time that such a performance has been recorded at Cape Town's most iconic site.