Main St Sundays is an invitation to step into a version of Joburg that often gets overlooked among the headlines of urban decay and municipal mismanagement, one that is creative, communal and stubbornly alive. At the inaugural event, a stretch of Main Street in Joburg's inner city will be closed off to cars and opened to people. The reclaimed stretch of tarmac will become abuzz with activations of all kinds: art, skateboarding, live music, a market, urban gardening, kids activities and plenty more. An opportunity to highlight what is already present in the city, as well as the potential of what the city can become.
A city reclaiming its most valuable asset
This is not a festival in the conventional sense, it is a civic experiment. A pilot open-street event organised by Jozi My Jozi, City of Johannesburg and Young Urbanists, the idea is deceptively simple: close a street to private vehicles for a day, fill it with life, and prove that our streets are worth more than the cars parked on them.
What if fixing Joburg's streets isn't just about maintenance, but imagination?
The timing is deliberate. Johannesburg is at a crossroads. The city is grappling with infrastructure decay, shrinking public space and a public conversation that too often starts and ends at potholes. But the people behind Main St Sundays are asking a bigger question: what if fixing our streets isn't just about maintenance, but imagination? What if the street itself could be a park, a gallery, a playground, a meeting room, a skate park and a farmers' market all at once?
Globally, the evidence has long supported this. From Bogotá to Barcelona to Paris, cities that have invested in people-first streets have seen retail turnover rise, property values improve and communities strengthen. The research is consistent, and as the title of American-Canadian journalist and urbanist Jane Jacobs' landmark essay says: Downtown is for People. And South Africa's own data backs this up. When streets prioritise pedestrians and active mobility, footfall increases, dwell times lengthen and local economies respond.
This is not a festival in the conventional sense, it is a civic experiment.
At its core, this event is Joburg and its residents doing what they have always done – finding a way, making something from nothing, showing up and making a city that was built for crass mining and commercial interests liveable. If you love this city or want to, then this is one event that you cannot miss.
The blueprint that started it
The spark for Main St Sundays was lit in Cape Town when Young Urbanists partnered with the City and the Mayor's Office to close Bree Street, a major artery through the city, every Sunday as a recurring open streets experiment. No special events permits or commercial sponsors requiring exclusivity, just a street cleared of cars and opened up to whatever the community brought to it. The results were striking: businesses in the corridor reported roughly 20% higher turnover on open street days, and the activation built a groundswell of public support for rethinking how the city uses its roads.
It wasn't the first time the idea had been experimented with in South Africa. Years earlier, the Johannesburg Development Agency, alongside Local Studio and other city departments, piloted the country's very first street experiment on Joubert Street in the inner city. And more recently, the upgrade of Lilian Ngoyi Street demonstrated what the city's own Complete Streets Framework looks like in practice as the road was redesigned into a human-scaled corridor with wider pavements, better public transport access and genuine space for pedestrians and traders.
Main St Sundays draws directly from all of this. It follows the Bree St Sundays model of being community led with low barriers to entry, but grounds it in Johannesburg's own context, history and energy. The goal isn't to copy Cape Town. It's to prove that Johannesburg can do this too, and bring out the best of what it has to offer.
What to expect at Main St Sundays in Joburg
On Sun, Apr 12, 2026 Main Street will be organised into different zones along the closed street, each reflecting a different dimension of what a city street can be when it belongs to its people.
1. MIND AND BODY
For those who want to slow down amid the buzz, the Mind and Body zone will bring yoga, meditation, books and reading events. Yoga With Drake runs a recurring hourly programme from early morning until noon, alternating between gentle yoga stretches and guided meditations. DivineBeing Yoga will also be there running Hatha yoga sessions. There will be an outdoor library, with story readings for children at 11:00 and 14:00. And Bridge Books and the Jozi Silent Book Club create a designated reading corner from 10:30 – bring your book, sit down and read with strangers. When you need a break from the pages there will be plenty of other things to keep you occupied.
2. JOZI MY JOZI
Consider this the civic centre of the day and where you can find out more about various urban initiatives that are shaping the city. The Jozi My Jozi Zone houses the event's information point – your first stop if you're arriving and want to get your bearings, find out what's on where, or learn more about the organisations behind Main Street Sundays. Beyond the practical, this zone is also a window into what's happening across the city: urban development initiatives, placemaking projects and the broader vision for Johannesburg's public spaces are all on display here. It's where the street experiment meets the bigger picture, and where you can find out how to get involved beyond showing up on a Sunday.
3. ACTIVE MOBILITY
Here, the street becomes a track, a rink and a velodrome all at once, and is the most visceral marker that Main Street doesn't need cars to be full of life. Skateistan runs a beginner skate clinic (helmets and gear provided) alongside an open skate session with portable ramps for more experienced riders. Fathima Cycling Co offers bicycle rentals for all ages, from kids' push bikes to adult urban cruisers. Banditz Bicycle Club will run city cycling rides and beginner lessons, and Padel Green will host workshops throughout. Then, Golden City Rollers, Joburg's all-inclusive roller derby league, set up a demo and exhibition stall for the full day. Kicking off the day will be a community run through the city with Braamfie Runners at 07:00.
4. KIDS
One of the biggest and most lovingly put-together zones of the day, the Kids Zone is designed to make Main Street feel like it was built for children. You can either stay to partake in the activities with your kids, or drop them off. There will be plenty of marshals as well as wristbands for the kids to make sure that you can explore the street with the peace of mind that the little ones are safe.
Play Africa brings a suite of open-ended, facilitated play experiences including an Imagination Playground, Rigamajig , a Children's Courtroom, Monoprinting Station and a canvas where children add to a collaborative artwork. Zoomies runs structured movement sessions, while the Joburg Literary District facilitates storytelling at hourly intervals. Stars Under The Stars will bring a drawing workshop.
What piqued our interest most, and had us hoping it wouldn't only be open to children, is the environmental section. Exotically Divine Pulse, a nonprofit based at Drill Hall, Hillbrow, and Plenty Green Africa will run a hands-on urban gardening session, transforming underused space opposite Sadie's Bistro into a herb garden. It anchors urban farming demos, soil-building workshops and cooking stations that show the green hiding among the concrete. In this regard, Love Our City Klean will host upcycling and recycling stations throughout the day, and then something a bit more unexpected is an urban birdwatching activation, right there on the street.
5. GAMES
The Games Zone will ensure that grown-ups can have just as much fun as the kids with indigenous games, ping pong, pool, volleyball, and we're sure some unexpected surprises too. There'll be an interactive games space for adults, with digital and physical games on a rolling basis throughout the day, and Leratong Community Hub's Indigenous Games Activation will reconnect you with games from the playground.
6. ART AND DESIGN
The largest and most sprawling zone, and arguably the heart of the event's creative energy, the Art and Design Zone will include a market where you can buy from local designers and aritsts, as well as a ridiculous array of pop-ups, exhibitions and workshops. Sewcial Studios hosts The Main Street Kaross – a communal textile activation inspired by the traditional Southern African kaross, where visitors contribute fabric collage pieces responding to the prompt, "What does Johannesburg mean to you?", building a growing public archive that can expand at everJoburgy future edition. Photowalkers run a cyanotype printing session in the afternoon, followed by a sunset photography walk through the CBD.
Installations, photography activations, graffiti and artworks from artists and studios, including Ntsikelelo Mzibomvu Art Studio, Asinayo Indawo!, Spaza Art Gallery and FEDE Arthouse, round out a zone that is genuinely impossible to walk through without stopping. In addition Standard Bank Gallery and Asisebenze Art Gallery will open their doors on the day, and independent artists will have the ability to showcase their art along the street. With so many participants, it's hard to imagine what this zone will look like, so come on the day to find out.
7. MUSIC
The soundtrack to the day will be hard to miss. There will be two live music stages running across the length of the street – a main stage anchored near the Loveday and Rissik Street end of the closure, and a second, more intimate stage closer to Sadie's Bistro at the western end, keeping the energy going across the full stretch. Bassline brings the headline programming, with Brandon Aura confirmed to perform, IKS also on the bill, and further details still to be announced. Expect the kind of line-up that feels like a proper Sunday.
Plan your visit
Main St Sundays is free and open to all, just RSVP here. On the food and drink front, you're well catered for. Sadie's Bistro will be operating on the day, and restaurants and eateries along Main Street will also be open, so there's no shortage of places to stop, sit and watch the street do its thing. At the eastern end, Gandhi Square will also be activated as part of the day, giving the event real scale and a natural gathering point to head to as you work your way along the street.Where: Main Street, Marshalltown
When: Sun, Apr 12, 2026 from 10:00 – 17:00
Parking: 42 Parkade (Anglo American Parking) and Standard Bank Parking, Frederick Street, Marshalltown. There’ll be signage and ushers from there on.
Free entry, RSVP here.
For more information in the lead-up to Main St Sundays, follow Jozi My Jozi and Young Urbanists on Instagram.
