NAFAC 2019 to open in Koforidua
After a couple of postponements, the 2019 edition of the National Festival for Arts and Culture (NAFAC) opens on Friday, November 8, at the Koforidua Jubilee Park in the Eastern Region.
Dubbed ‘Empowering the Youth Through Culture, Tourism and Creative Arts for Employment and Wealth Creation”, it forms part of the National Commission on Culture’s effort to enhance Ghanaian cultural life.
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NAFAC 2019 is expected to bring together young people across the country to interact and share ideas on the economic and socio-cultural potentials in the cultural and creative industries. The festival will also include a national durbar of chiefs and regional days meant for the promotion of cultural interactions and inter-ethnic understanding.
Other activities are “Women and Children’s Day”, “Youth Day”, “Colloquium”, “Miss NAFAC Pageant” and “Nights of Music, Dance and Drama”.
There will also be a variety of exhibitions and performances from the Ghana Dance Ensemble, Ghana Concert Party Union and the Musicians Union of Ghana.
The festival is a unifier of the various ethnic groups in the country as two regions celebrate their days together till all have had their turn at the festival.
As the regions mark their days, exhibitions also go on for each region to show their peculiar artefacts.
The festival was started in 1961 by Dr A. A. Y. Kyeremateng, the first Director of the Kumasi Cultural Centre. The United States Embassy in Accra saw the good work being done by Dr Kyeremateng and sponsored the 1967 edition.
The government of Ghana got involved with NAFAC in 1972 and the festival was celebrated for the first time at district, regional and national levels that year.
NAFAC 2019 positions culture as a critical driving force towards the economic and socio-cultural fortunes of Ghana.
It also aims at developing cultural programmes to contribute to the nation’s human development and progress through heritage preservation and promotion, as well as the use of traditional and modern arts and crafts to create wealth and alleviate poverty.
NAFAC 2019 ends on Friday, November 15.
