BY BUKOLA BARDI & TOSIN IGHOTEGUONO
The much talked about Ketewa Festival, an idanre community driven carnival begins this Friday, December 25 through Sunday, December 27.
The three day event will feature Ayo opon, Arin, ogboogodo (traditional poetry) marathon race, football, seminar, display of local foods, a night with the legend, Sir Francis Akintade and the grand finale, an all night party which will showcase idanre born talents in different music genre
Commissioner for Culture and Tourism in Ondo state, Mr Yemi Olowolabi stated these when he featured on this week’s edition of Positive Fm’s Personality Programme, GUEST OF THE WEEK, dedicated to promoting KETEWA festival as part of the radio station’s contributions to the event which is being spearheaded by the idanre born Olowolabi.
The Commissioner explained that the event was a community initiave focusing on bringing idanre people together to appreciate their culture, preserve their cultural heritage and also promote unity among them
Olowolabi noted “Last year was the maiden edition and we called it IDANRE UNITY CARNIVAL, it was very successful, immediately after that first edition which was like a test run of the capacity of our people to do it in their own, we came together again and said okay, there was the need for us to rebrand this carnival, then for more robust content, then we now said we would call it KETEWA, a local word for UNITY., KETEWA means all of us. Apart from unity, we wanted something that appeals to Muslims, Christians, atheists alike. KETEWA is essentially a social rendezvous where we will celebrate arts and culture, Where we will celebrate our unique environment.
On the sustenance of the festival beyond his tenure of office, Mr Olowolabi gave an assurance that Ketewa Festival would outlive his tenure as a comissioner since it was community driven. “Interestingly ketewa is not built around me, ketewa is built around our community, everybody working on the committee works voluntarily, its not about an individual at all”
Speaking on the rested Mare Festival, Mr Olowolabi revealed that the programme was discontinued long before the present administration came on board, citing paucity of fund as the reason.
The media executive therefore charged communities to take over indigenous festivals for sustainability.
The commissioner announced that government would leave no stone unturned in making tourists sites in Ondo state attractive for investors to promote the country’s cultural heritage.
Nice one …….
Thanks