The Lagos State Government has approved three festivals as part of the annual celebrations in Ikorodu. The festivals are Ikorodu Oga Celebrations, Asa-Arokolo Festival and Water Regatta festival.
The festivals were listed in the state calendar of Arts and Culture, which was recently released by the Lagos State Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture. In his speech during the unfolding of the Calendar in Lagos, the State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Steve Ayorinde said that the initiative was in fulfilment of the state government’s promise to announce a yearly calendar of events to guide programming tourists and visitors’ decisions.
The Commissioner stated that the Governor of Lagos, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode kick started the year with attendance at Ali Baba’s January first comedy concert at Eko Hotel. Other Arts and culture events held in January and February so far and included in the calendar were, Angle and Muse, an arts exhibition by a Lagos trained world renowned Artist, Febi, a month long indigenous cultural festival in Epe, Wazobia FM carnival as well as the Lagos State City marathon, amongst others.
Ayorinde said that the idea of creating a calendar of events for state sponsored and endorsed programmes was to make event planning, hour bookings and business decisions easier for tour operators and the general public.
He disclosed that the calendar was part of the state’s innovative intervention to project arts, entertainment and leisure benefits inherent in Lagos, which makes the state attractive to domestic tourists, business travels and stop-over passersby.
The information commissioner said that the state is forging ahead in expanding the consumption of its tourism products by improving access to tourism information and creating an events guide for the media and hour bloggers. The calendar contains most of the well-known indigenous cultural festivals across the state, entertainment events, concerts, visual and performing arts as well as fashion and culinary events.
According to Steve Ayorinde, the state is expected to leverage on its continuous infrastructural developments, regeneration and creation of iconic monuments and attractions for entertainment, arts and culture enthusiasts to boost economic activities and expand opportunities for job creation during the various events stated in the calendar.
In his words, “the administration of Governor Ambode believes that the quantum of cash transactions across the tourism and entertainment value chain as tracked in December 2017 when about fifty billion naira was spent on entertainment and leisure alone, was a testimony to the huge economic gain that exists in promoting tourism in Lagos State.
This and the other economic factors make Lagos one of the most vibrant and culturally significant cities in Africa with potentials to make enormous impact in driving in bound tourist from across the globe”, he stated.
Major events listed in the calendar included Gidi-fest, Lagos Water Regatta and Fanti-Carnival around the Easter period, the international Jazz day celebration on April 30, which will be dedicated to the South African Jazz legend H. Masakela; the Lagos comedy festival on May 6, 2018 and the Eko Art Expo in the last weekend in May.
Steve said June would be rich with the first ever Lagos Golf funfair and Lagos Cine Fest, which is designed to take cinema-going experience to all the five divisions of the state. The Lagos festival of plays is a major highlight in the third quarter of the year along with Lagos fishing festival (Oshoroko) in Ibeju-Lekki, Akwaaba Travel market and Fuaji Agba – a special concert for the elderly to mark world Elder’s Day.
Ayorinde said that October to December would be the most intense period on the calendar with Olokun Festival, MUSON festival, AFRIMA, AFRIFF, Kayo-Kayo festival in Epe; the Lagos luxury summit/fair; felabration, which would celebrate Fela’s 80th post-humours birthday; the Lagos Books and Arts Festival (LABAF), which would be used to welcome Lagos into Africa’s creative cities club including One Lagos Fiesta, which will hold between December 24 and 31st across the five division of the state.
The commissioner expressed appreciation to corporate sponsors who would make many of these events to happen. He said that the aim of the government was to use the Calendar and other strategic initiatives to enrich the entertainment and creative economy as an integral component of tourism promotion.