Over 7,000 participants from 50 countries in Africa and around the world have confirmed attendance of this year’s FESTAC Africa festival, which kicks off in Kisumu this weekend.
Hotels in the Lake side city are fully booked, even as organizers of the continental fete put in place final touches to make the event a success. Kisumu Governor Prof. Anyang Nyong’o said the county government has put proper structures in place to ensure the festival, which runs from 25th August-1st September 2024 is successful.
Nyong’o said security has been beefed up to guarantee the safety of all visitors, adding that preparations for the conference and meeting venues has been finalized. Jomo Kenyatta International Stadium will be the main venue for the event with participants expected to have 18 conference sessions at the facility.
Other events will include 20 sporting activities, dance, drama, music, poetry, culinary arts and tourism where visitors will sample some of the key attraction sites in Kisumu and other counties within the Lake Region Economic Bloc. The event has attracted 200 key note speakers, 100 performing artistes and 150 exhibitors all drawn from different parts of the continent.
Visitors will also be treated to an array of special programmes making this year’s FESTAC festival one of its kind, added the governor. The celebrations come after Kisumu successfully held the Afri-cities summit in 2022, which has opened doors for other international conferences.
“This year is our time to shine. Kisumu must show the world that Festac is still alive,” he said. Festac Africa Festival, which was held for the first time in Dakar Senegal in 1966 is a celebration of African heritage and sustainable growth, serving as a convergence point for diverse cultures and industries.
Festac Africa Chairman Eng. Yinka Abioye said the festival will provide an opportunity for people from different countries to trade, network and exchange culture and values. “The festival presents an opportunity for inter-county and inter-country trade, while giving an opportunity for Africans to travel to a different African country to network and do business,” he said.
Various programmes, among them theatre and movies, have been lined up for children to teach them about the continent. “We want to teach them about self-pride in being African, while at the same time laying emphasis on Science Technology Education and Mathematics (STEM), which holds the future of the continent,” he said.
The governor urged Kenyans and Africans from other countries to turn up in large numbers for the celebrations.