Eight years ago, the governor of Ondo State, Dr Rahman Olusegun Mimiko after taking a cultural tourism inventory of the state which revealed awesome and wonderful potentialities yearning to be enhanced for the good of the state and people inaugurated the Mare Mountain climbing festival.
The festival which in his words “symbolizes the ruggedness of the state, the sheer determinism mentality of a typical Ondo state indigene to suppress challenges, the ability to dare and surmount seemingly insurmountable situation and the strong spirit of hard work, protection and preservation of integrity and the spirit of cultural convivialism among themselves. Hence the concept, planning subsequent inauguration of Mare Mountain Climbing Festival.’’
With determined zeal and enthusiasm, Governor Mimiko in sequential order has ensured the hosting of Mare mountain Climbing Festival every year, turning it into an Ondo State brand which has not only been turned a global brand of identification for the state, but also a singular event which cultivated international respect and honour of cultural relevance for the state in the comity of global cultural tourism society.
The strategy and modules adopted to launch and spread the message of Mare was not couched in a simple showcasing of cultural and physical endowment in the state for mere dancing and appreciation, but well tailored making it an economically inducing event which stokes and lubricates arenas of profitable ventures for the state, the people and tourists .
A cursory look at the event in the last eight years has shown that the annual event has not only achieved its main objectives of enhancing the tourism potentialities of the state but from its first outing gained recognition not as a local brand, but as a global brand which drew international attention to the uniqueness of the city of Idanre, where all the mountains came to have conference, but refused to go back to base.
The Mare Mountain Climbing Festival has never been a mono focal event but an admixture of socio, entertainment, cultural, spot and tourism packages all rolled with exciting performance of selected rave of the moment and upcoming artistes who are always given the platform to showcase and unbundling their talents to the whole world.
Mare has been multi- dimensional in package and ceremonies as it is a superlative four days of dance, marathon race, biking, mountaineering, traditional sport competition, which always featured celebrities, star actors and actresses and traditional dancers and musicians from all the local councils in the state.
The festival has also helped the government of Mimiko in establishing the Idanre tourism corridor which has led to the, the establishment of Idanre Mountain Resorts, renovation and rebranding of Idanre hill, reviving of the golf course in Atoshin, Ondo, the establishment of Habitat 1 and others which have not only created more jobs but also enhanced infrastructural development in the zone.
One cannot but commend the ingenuity and determination of the executive governor of the state Governor Mimiko who gave the festival the necessary political backing and leverage needed for the growth and germination of the concept.
And being a worthy venture, fate has also blessed the governor who has not been in want of capable hands helping to midwife, nurture, organise and ensure the success of each of the Mare; the likes of Mr Tola Wewe, late Mr Deji Falae, Ambassador Wanle Akinboboye, Kayode Akinmade, and the incumbent commissioner Mr Femi Adekanbi. One remarkable thing about Mare Festival is the not just about the large turnout of people at the event, but the improvement in the way and manner it is being celebrated specifically the just concluded 8th edition is the best so far, best in the sense that it defies the economic recession and maintains its beautiful form as well as giving opportunities to reminiscence on the past and the expectations from the coming government.
The state Commissioner for Information Mr Kayode Akinmade while speaking on the reason for celebrating Mare Festival said, the historical town of Idanre is unique with assemblage of rock and topography which cannot be found anywhere in the world, so Mr Governor believes that rather than allowing the natural tourism potentials, deposited in the town to waste away, we can brand it with an international festival that will not only showcase the tourism potentials but enhance unity of people in the state and at the same time attract tourists and investors for economic development of the state.
‘To a very large extent, we have been able to make Mare a brand that will be able to sustain itself in couple of years, we have put in place structures and facilities that will make people not only to come during the festival but throughout the year either for the golf course in Atosin or climb the mountain and others, our focus is to promote domestic tourism.’’
The excitements of Governor Mimiko could not be hidden at the grand finale of this year’s Mare Festival held at the…. Primary school as he danced intermittently to music more than he did in the previous editions.
In his speech, the governor said “This is the last Mare I will be attending officially in my capacity as the Governor of Ondo State. It has been a very wonderful celebration, we dreamt it and God helped us to achieve it, in the last eight years we have tried to put Mare in the calendar of International Festivals and we have succeeded in doing this and very soon Mare Mountain Climbing Festival would soon be declared so.”
“Through Mare, we have been able to create a brand that will not only outlive us, but will be celebrated as one of the best international festivals from this part of the world which I believe will also impact positively on the economic development of our state and country at large. It is not the size of our pocket that matters, but how far we have gone in impacting on people and making them happy.”
He pointed out ‘‘We are on the verge of getting the wonderful mountain in Idanre enlisted in the UNESCO Heritage sites and I have no doubt in my mind by the time that is achieved more job opportunities will be available for our people as the number of tourists and tourism activities will increase geometrically.’’
While commending the host community, Governor Mimiko said the traditional institution and the people of Idanre deserve commendation for their incredible and wonderful support in the last eight years,” whenever I come to Idanre it is like a home coming for me, Kabiesi has always been a pillar of support to us and I am grateful I want the people to extend the same to the coming administration for a continuation of the promotion of culture and tourism development in the state and in other sectors too”.
The Owa of Idanre, Oba Dr Fredrick Aroloye JP Arubiefin IV in his remark poured encomiums on the governor for creating a brand for Idanre with Mare Festival, “We are conscious of the fact that this annual event has been of great benefit to our community and we will forever be grateful to you for your efforts and we are hopeful that the festival will be sustained.’’
Mare 2016 featured lecture, movement of carnival train, marathon, mountain climbing and beauty pageant (Oreke Mare). Adekunle Gold, Kunle Orlando Owo Pa Francis Akintade, Adeola Ademulegun and others thrilled the audience with music that got everybody dancing.
Prince Olasunkanmi Olaniyi, winner of the star prize in the raffle ticket said “I wish Mare should continue and Dr Mimiko is in charge, he has done so much for us in Idanre, this community will forever be grateful to him for initiating such idea.”
Also Haruna Musa, an Akure trader told journalists “I have been coming to Mare since 2010 and I have no regret coming here at all, I make good profit coming to Mare, and we hope that this festival will not end with this administration .”
and then