By The Oyo State government is set to hold World Egungun day on May 1-2, featuring 150 masquerade performances, a scholarly symposium and appearances by Nollywood stars. The celebration of this day is to obey the cultural anthem in Nigeria and the entire world.
He explained that the two day event was a joint collaboration of Adayeba culture Tourism Foundation, Oyo State ministry of culture and tourism, Sahara centre, institute of African studies and Egbe Oje parapo Welfare Association. The combination of these association planned the traditional celebration of the World Egungun day.
Furthermore, the activities that will comes up in each day was highlighted by him; the first day of the World celebration will be a symposium at the local government Hall secretariat at 10am in the morning while the second day will be the grand finale which will takes place at the Obafemi Awolowo liberty stadium at 9am in the morning.
He added that Representatives from Sahara Centre and institute of African studies will anchor the symposium that will be held on the first day of the celebration. Also, there will be ten presentations of papers by erudite scholars to speak on topics on the same day.
He further explained that, the highlight of the grand finale of the celebration includes the exhibition of 150 Egungun performance with expectations from other countries to send their contingencies.
He also explained that there will be cultural charades from 120 cultural groups, they are expected to be in beautiful attires with each group having its own colour. However, “the colour for these groups should be the colour banners which will serve as an aesthetic they will project to the world.” he added.
In addition, there would be traditional music which includes Apala music, Fuji performance and there will also be performance from upcoming talents. Also, there’s also the provision of food hub for those that wants to buy food. Also, eight spots will be made for constant preparation of Akara for the attendees of the festival.
He also noted that, there were confirmation from artist that will grace the occasion with their presence. Ibrahim Chatta, Lalude, Aisha Lawal, Ojo pagogo, Femi Adebayo among others have confirmed their attendance to the Celebration day. There is expectation on 18,000 participants for the celebration including UNESCO, Top government functionaries, traditional rulers, cultural icon, international tourist, professional associations.
