Agona Swedru hosts masquerade festival
The annual Fancy Dress and Masquerade Festival has been held where patrons were thrilled with nerve-racking performances by participating groups at Agona Swedru in the Central Region.
The festival is a continuation of a century old tradition where adults and children wear colourful outfits and masks popularly known both home and abroad as “Kaakamotobi” during the Christmas period to dance to brass band music.
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The event, held at the Swedru Sports Stadium, was graced by thousands of people including tourists, chiefs, religious leaders and the general public who witnessed exciting dance moves from the groups who competed among themselves.
The four participating groups which competed in creativity, costume, dancing and discipline were hide and seek (group one), new edition (group two), nobles (group three) and red Indians (group four).
It was organised by the Swedru Fancy Dress Festival (SFDF) with support from Sterling-GP Limited, Ringworld, Pompous and Damat Media with sponsorship from MTN.
At the end of the competition, Hide and Seek group won followed by New Edition and Nobles and Red Indians took the third and fourth positions respectively.
Rationale
Speaking in an interview with the Daily Graphic on the sidelines of the festival, the Director of Swedru Fancy Dress Federation, Mr Nash Fiifi Eyison said that festival is a social project that seeks to reduce social vices such as teenage pregnancy, substance abuse among the youth.
According to him, the festival which had come to stay, is intended to provide a unique platform for the youth to unearth and realise their potential as well as find ways to harness them for their personal development.
He said “it is important for the youth to be given the opportunity and platform to express their talents so as to prevent them from engaging in negative acts that had the tendency to destroy their lives”.
“Obviously, if this festival is given the needed backing and sustained, it would enable many youth to unearth their God-given talents to contribute to the growth and development of Agona Swedru and its environs” he said.
Tourism
Mr Eyison said that apart from the Akwanbo festival, a traditional festival which is celebrated by the chiefs and people of the area, the SFDF could become another event which could boost tourism in the area annually.
He explained further that if the SFDF festival is well branded and marketed, it would attract thousands of revelers and tourists into the town to boost the local economy for the benefit of the people.
“I wish to assure the people within the Agona area that the federation will do everything possible to ensure that the festival stand the test of time so that residents reap the full benefit from it” Mr Eyison said.
In an interview with a section of the attendants, they commended the organisers for the event as the festival had enabled most of them to relive the age-old fancy dress tradition of the people in the Agona area.
They called on the promoters to institutionalise the festival and ensure that it achieved the purposes for which it was introduced.
