Kaduna Commissioner woos tourists as KADFEST begins September 4

Kaduna state ministry of youth, sports and culture has concluded plans to hold its annual  Kaduna State Festival of Arts and Culture (KADFEST) from 4th to 8th September 2018. The Commissioner of Youth, Sports and Culture, Daniel Danauta while speaking at a press briefing on Friday in Kaduna explained that Governor Nasir el-Rufai is expected […]

Kaduna state ministry of youth, sports and culture has concluded plans to hold its annual  Kaduna State Festival of Arts and Culture (KADFEST) from 4th to 8th September 2018.

The Commissioner of Youth, Sports and Culture, Daniel Danauta while speaking at a press briefing on Friday in Kaduna explained that Governor Nasir el-Rufai is expected to declare the festival open, while the closing ceremony is billed for September 8th.

He said, “As you are well aware, KADFEST is an annual events organized by the Ministry to bring together our State’s artists from the 23 Local Government Areas and private cultural organizers to come and showcase their God-given talents in the cultural sector.

“The purpose of KADFEST therefore, is to organized, promote and package a festival so that it encourages appreciation of our culture by creating self-employment through our indigenous arts and crafts to mention but a few.

“Every year’s KADFEST comes with a theme and this year theme is “Kaduna: Our Festivals, our Culture”. I find this theme quite interesting because festival is cardinal to our cultures because it marks the significant events important to our human race and instil a sense of common pride and knowledge of our history.

“KADFEST therefore is not all about dances, but celebration of our diverse food types, arts, crafts, social customs, attires and history of the people of Kaduna State,” he said.

Danauta explained that KADFEST has social benefits to bring people in the state together, as well as economic benefit to attract visitors and stimulate the growth of tourism and other businesses when properly harnessed.

“This is an opportunity the Ministry is looking forward to explore as it is appealing to the private sector to participate in the celebration of KADFEST.

“Apart from KADFEST, Kaduna State is endowed with diversified rich cultural festivals like the Afan Festival, Agbmiya Festival, Kumana Carnival, Moro’a Cultural Day, Baranzan Cultural Festival, the famous Durbar, and so many others.

“These are important festivals that would generate an image boost and offer plenty of advantage to the State and offer the people in the State a feeling of social, geographic cultural belonging,” he added.

The commissioner said that the celebration of this year’s KADFEST therefore, as usual will feature competitive and non-competitive events.

“The competitive events are organized to source the best to represent the State positively in the National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFEST).

“This year KADFEST thus have the following events lined up of which at the end we shall have the overall winners and also source for the best to participate in NAFEST 2018 in Rivers State as the State Contingent.

“The competitive events are Dance Drama, Ayo Board Game, Indigenous Fabrics in Contemporary Apparel, Traditional Wrestling (Junior Category), Traditional Cuisines, Children’s Essay Writing, Children’s Craft, Children’s Tales by Moonlight. While the non-competitive events are Stakeholders’ Round-Table on Entrepreneurship, Command Performance, Arts and Crafts Cultural Market/Exhibition, Female Wrestling Demonstration, Free Skills Acquisition/Training and Night of Entertainment,” he concluded.