‘Beere Festival will showcase uniqueness of Saki heritage’

ACTIVITIES to mark this year’s edition of Beere festival, in Saki area of Oyo State began last Wednesday as the Okere of Saki land, Oba Khalid Oyeniyi Olabisi Ilugbemidepo Oyedepo III, unveiled activities for the festival.

The festival which is billed to run from  March 29 to April 6, 2021, will attract people of all walks of life to the unique cultural landscape of Saki.   Beere festival is a common grass, which grows only on the plain lands used mainly for thatching houses. The grass is considered as the most opulent of all materials used for covering houses.

The festival thus originated from a careful thought by the Okere to devise means by which the grasses could be preserved to repair the existing thatched roofs used for the people’s houses as well as to build new ones and it’s been a unique celebration in celebrating cultural ingenuity.

According to the Chairman, Beere festival, Local Organising Committee (LOC) and Bagii of Saki Land, High Chief Adegoke Ghazaal Abdur-Rasheed, “the Beere festival is to showcase the cultural potential and ingenuity of the Saki land over period of nine days.

“Each day is designed to feature different activities which include offering of prayers, cultural activities, feasting, pageantry tagged the queen’s day, revealing of biggest pot in the world and the paying of homage to the Okere by provincial chiefs.”

He explained that it has taken long they celebrated the festival, adding that the move to rejuvenate the Beere Festival was a deliberate effort by Oba Oyedepo to rally support and plan for the comeback of the festival to not only promote but also preserve its socio-economic development of the people and Sakiland.

Adegoke lauded Oba Oyedepo for his thoughtfulness to have considered him fit to rejuvenate the Beere Festival.

“Beere festival is our cultural heritage which is an avenue to showcase the cultural uniqueness of the people of Saki land. This is an old long festival which is as old as when Saki was founded, but this year’s festival is going to be the first of its kind in a while.

“This year’s festival is unique because it is being celebrated under a unique, reformed and refined monarch because we have never had it so good like this in Saki, so we want this year’s festival to be different from the previous editions.

“We want to use Beere Festival to promote Saki heritage and take the festival to the next level, we want it to be internationalised and go beyond the shores of our land. We want to showcase the beauty of our land.

“This year’s outing is to showcase to the world that Saki is hospitable. It is a nine days festivital and during the nine days celebrations, various activities usually take place which includes a 21-gun salute from our hunters to kick start the programme while drumming and presentation of gifts, traditional dances and paying of homage to the King by various groups including the high chiefs. Local drummers are always around to add colours to various activities.

“We have taken into consideration the protocols as regards COVID-19 and that was why the grand final was moved from the palace of Okere to the stadium considering the kind of crowd we are expecting meet up with the COVID-19 protocol.

“We expect every visitor both within and outside the town to protect themselves by using face masks and we want to assure anybody coming for the event of adequate protection as first aid personnel will be on the ground. We are well-prepared for the festival,” Adegoke said.

Also, Oba Oyedepo appealed to the state government to turn some of the historical center to tourist center.

He said places like Kooko, Aafin Apoloye, Ogidigbo, Odo Basaori Otun and Igbo-Ologun can attract investors and make Oyo State enjoy the economic returns of tourism better than they generate at present.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents

In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state…Beere Festival will showcase  Beere Festival will showcase

Selfies, video calls and Chinese documentaries: The things you’ll meet onboard Lagos-Ibadan train

The Lagos-Ibadan railway was inaugurated recently for a full paid operation by the Nigerian Railway Corporation after about a year of free test-run. Our reporter joined the train to and fro Lagos from Ibadan and tells his experience in this report…Beere Festival will showcase Beere Festival will showcase