Highlights of 2015 Lagos Black Heritage Festival

The fiesta started with the African craft bazaar, ‘The vision of the child.’ The exhibition, which ends today, featured works of children while serving as a talent hunt for the next crop of artists in the future generation. This year, works were presented in a variety of media with the festival urging a two-fold expression […]

The fiesta started with the African craft bazaar, ‘The vision of the child.’ The exhibition, which ends today, featured works of children while serving as a talent hunt for the next crop of artists in the future generation. This year, works were presented in a variety of media with the festival urging a two-fold expression in word and image, of works. This was aimed at developing the powers of observation and representation, as participating children are taught to express themselves annually on a chosen theme drawn from the prevailing socio-economic and political development.
Masquerades from Badagry clad in colourful costumes from raffia to shredded fabrics were a major highlight of the one-week event. They thrilled the audience with a street parade showing off dance steps and acrobatics which culminated at the Freedom Park, mother of all venues of the festival.
In spite of their exotic display, the masquerades didn’t out shine the Eko Brass Band, which made their mark entertaining all and bringing back memories from editions before.
This set the pace for the rest of the events as each one unravelled taking it a notch higher.
Major attractions this year included the boat regatta entitled, ‘City of Waters,’ on th Lagos Lagoon along Ozumba Mbadiwe Way.
The central focus of this year’s outing was drama. According to organisers, this was to reinvigorate interest in theatre arts, while bringing the art closer to the people and not merely limiting it to confined spaces at regular venues.
Playing its traditional role as the hub of the festival, the Freedom Park was also host to stage performances like ‘The Beatification Of Area Boy,’ ‘The Tragedy of King Christophe,’ ‘Night of the Poets,’ ‘Seizing Sambisa,’ ‘TARZAN Monologues’ and ‘Snapshots’ among others.
With the celebrations ending with the poetry, music night today, the festival was also characterised by film screenings of documentary and experimental films with a segment, ‘Meet the artiste showcase’ which chronicled the stage and screen career of veteran actor, Olu Jacobs.