Reimagining, reinventing and reclaiming our Jozi; Main Street Sunday

Posted on 27 April 202629 May 2026

Main Street Sunday 12th April 2026

On a crisp Highveld autumnal April day, in the heart of Jozi’s inner city, 8 blocks of Main Street was transformed. With Main Street closed to traffic, the jostling churn of impatience, hooting and petrol fumes became rather a joyous community space, where pedestrians could linger and wander between buskers, stalls, communal art activities and children’s play areas. The event, a collaboration between the City of Johannesburg, Jozi My Jozi, Young Urbanists NPC, and Johannesburg In Your Pocket, successfully reimagined Main Street (between Ntemi Piliso and Rissik Streets) as a street inviting movement not through it, but within it.

Remaking the City: Morning yoga in front of the entrance to 44 Main Street, the old Anglo American Head Office.

Drawing circles of connecting in a street junction

Families and children engage in imaginative play in a piazza in front of what, in the 1970s, was the Standard Bank’s Head Office building. At the bottom right a young wannabee judge in legal robes, persistently declaring order with his gavel, passes sentence on his accused in the court!

Crowds gather to smile, dance and celebrate

Sewcial Studio has gathered fabric, wool, thread, and other craft materials for participants to each make an individual panel epitomizing Jozi

And here are beginnings of the large collaborative hanging – what a great initiative by Sewcial Studios

From jostling thoroughfare to open-air carnival, Main Street Sunday shifted the vibe from movement under pressure to movement by choice.

This event is planned to be first of more to come and judging by the success of the first-time event, it will become a favoured event on the calendar.

Well done to all involved – what a huge undertaking.