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 Revellers who thronged the streets of Obomeng
Revellers who thronged the streets of Obomeng

Revellers enjoy Easter festivities despite bad weather, accommodation difficulty

Bad weather in particular took the shine off this year’s Kwahu Easter festivities, with a number of revellers and tourists who had trooped to Kwahu, some with their families, to spend the Easter holidays there left disappointed, claiming that the events, which have gained international attention, lacked proper planning.

"I personally did not enjoy this year's events. I think the weather affected the whole celebration," a tourist, Ms Erica Benford, said.

Paragliding Festival

The festivities kicked off on a very low key with the opening of the annual Paragliding Festival on the Odweanoma Mountain last Friday.

The first hiccup in the opening ceremony was foggy weather, which delayed the event for hours, leaving many tourists bored and morose.

There was also a drastic drop in the number of pilots who signed up for this year's event. Last year, more than 10 pilots from seven countries participated in it, but at the start of this year’s event, five pilots, including two Ghanaians, had signed up.

 That made it difficult for the organisers, the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), to register many people who had wanted to participate in the paragliding.

The rains also disrupted a number of activities in Kwahu during the Easter period. On Saturday, for instance, a heavy downpour brought the paragliding to a halt and also disrupted the scheduled introduction of the Obomenghene, Nana Effah Opinamang III.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was in attendance.

Impressive show

Despite the low patronage of the Paragliding Festival, there was a beautiful display by the pilots, especially the two Ghanaians. Although Jonathan Quaye and Michael Kwakye were not experienced enough to take along passengers on their flights, they put up good shows that were greeted with continuous applause.

The other pilots came from the United States of America, Japan and Romania.

Another important event, the street carnival, which was also slated for the day attracted low patronage.

Revellers, however, enjoyed themselves on Friday evening and on Sunday.

Fanfare

Whenever there was good weather, scores besieged the various pubs and spots in the towns on the Kwahu Ridge to have fun.

On Friday night, for instance, the streets of Obomeng and parts of Obo and Mpraeso were closed to pave the way for carnivals.

Telecommunication companies, including MTN and Vodafone, launched new products and also introduced some packages for the festivities.

 Street jams at which artistes thrilled revellers were a popular feature.

Accommodation

Over the years, a major challenge during Easter festivities in Kwahu has been accommodation. Many visitors found it extremely difficult to secure rooms in hotels and guest houses, as the rooms had been booked months ahead of Easter.

But this year was an exception, as some hotels had rooms which were not occupied.

A visit by the Daily Graphic team to some of the hotels revealed that rates for rooms had been tripled and almost all of them were charging specially fixed rates for their lodgings that did not take into consideration the number of days a visitor intended to stay.

At some of the hotels, a room was pegged at GH¢1,000 for the three-day period of Friday to Sunday. For the A-class hotels, the rate was GH¢6,000 for the three-day period.

Traffic/security

This year's Easter celebration was not characterised by massive vehicular traffic in the popular Kwahu towns.

Most of the streets were virtually empty during the mornings but recorded traffic build-up during the night. On the average, one spent about 10 minutes to travel a distance of about 800 metres at Obomeng and Atibie.

One of the most exceptional things that happened this year was the security arrangement put in place by the Eastern Regional Police Command.

There were police checkpoints in almost all the towns and the activities of commercial motor riders, popularly called ‘okada’,  were missing, following a warning by the police to arrest them.

So was the use of unregistered vehicles.

Towns such as Obomeng had about 10 security checkpoints.

Expansion

In her welcome address at the opening of the Paragliding Festival, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Ms Catherine Afeku, said the ministry would partner the Eastern Regional Coordinating Council and the chiefs and elders of Kwahu to expand the festivities.

She talked about accommodation, the road network and other attractive events and called for support and assistance from the chiefs and opinion leaders of Kwahu to make the Kwahu Easter festivities the best on the continent.

For his part, the acting Chief Executive Officer of the GTA, Mr Akwasi Agyemang, said: "This year's event is unique in the sense that we are providing public liability insurance, courtesy GLICO, for all patrons and visitors to the site."

He said more would be done in the coming years to boost patronage of the paragliding event.

About the event

The Paragliding Festival, organised by the GTA, has become a major activity of the Kwahu Easter celebration in recent years.

It was initiated by the Ministry of Tourism in April 2005 and organised to coincide with the Easter festivities of that year.

 

With the exception of 2009, the festival has been organised each year. This year's event was the 12th edition.

 Carnival at Obomeng

 

 A pilot paragliding on the Odweanoma Mountain

 

 

 Revellers  enjoying themselves at Obomeng

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