Carnival Calabar, a flagship brand of the Cross River State’s one month festival took a new turn with things falling in place for the new governor of the state, Prince Bassey Edet Otu, who hosted his first of the 19 years old carnival that celebrate the biggest street party in Africa.
The whole town rose up to the performances of the carnival revelers as their strategically interpret the theme of the 2023; Season of Sweetness tied around humanity to drive home their presentation at the adjudication points.
The 2023 edition came with its pomp and ceremony with the re-introduction of the children category of the carnival. This in fact received a resounding applaud from carnival lovers and tourists, who watched the children’s wonderful performance along the carnival route until they retired to the EG Stadium where they gave their star performance to the admiration of the audience.
The children category, did not only light up the atmosphere of the carnival display, but also strengthened the all-inclusive motive of governor Otu to give the children a sense of belonging as the future custodians of the carnival and also to prepare the young at heart for the innovation of tomorrow.
Speaking at the flag off of the carnival, the Governor of Cross River State, Prince Out said “This is one of our campaign promises that we are going to bring carnival back and in a bigger platform. What you see today is a tip of the iceberg because we are now moving to the next level. And I assure you that with our numerous sponsors present here, we are going to work together to make the carnival better.
“Carnival Calabar remains the biggest street party in the world, it causes us some issues and there is a breakdown in transmission but I assure you that we have reconnected fully. If you look around, you see a lot of energy, which shows that we are ready to vibrate.”
He thanked the organizers for putting together a great carnival show.
Meanwhile, after the 12km display by the competing bands along the carnival routes and the final performance at the UJ Esuene stadium, the Calas Vegas Band emerged overall winner of the Carnival Calabar competitive events.
The winning band was led by the former Minister for Culture and Tourism and former Cross River Commissioner for Tourism, Chief Edem Duke.
The band, which was one of the newest bands, performed energetically and thrilled the revellers with their beautifully decorated costumes and theatrical materials.
Calas Vegas performance exhibited the glory of Cross River in greenery environment, enticing tourism destinations and more.
Passion 4 band, the band with the most wins in the history of the carnival, came second and was led by Chief Chris Akigbe while Seagull band led by Sen. Florence Ita-Giwa, came third.
Other competing bands in the carnival included Bayside, Diamond, Freedom and Master Blaster.
In the Children’s Carnival Category, Passion 4 emerged winner, Seagull Band came second, while Calas Vegas secured the third position.
For the Local Government Area Category, Odukpani came first, Akpabuyo emerged second and Calabar South won the third position.
For the Cultural Festival, Akwa Ibom came first, Ebonyi second, while Edo and Ondo state both came third in the state category.
The street party segment of the carnival, which started at the Millennium Park, witnessed a 12 kilometres performance through to the UJ Esuene Stadium where performances continued till dawn, when the winners were announced.
Each of the band performed in line with the theme for the carnival “Season of Sweetness” and was assessed by teams of jury.
In a brief chat with Travelpulse and MICE at the sideline of the carnival, the Chairman, Carnival Calabar Commission, Dr Gabe Onah, who spoke on the creative value of the carnival as it relates to economic drive of the state said Carnival Calabar is interested in data to strategically interpret the effort and gain of the event.
According to Onah “over 40,000 direct employment had been generated since the inception of the carnival in 2004. The commission inherited 5,000 direct employment within the creative industry space, but could now boast of over 40,000 through the carnival.
“These employment opportunities encompass various roles within the carnival, such as make-up artists, artisans, and others involved in organising and running the event.
“We have been keen on big data since 2007, we inherited 2,300 bedrooms across Calabar but today, we have over 35,000.
“We inherited 5,000 direct employment and today, we have over 40,000 direct employment because the hotels are growing and the youth are meaningfully engaged.
“But we are conscious of the fact that government does not have to be in this business. And so, we are gradually pulling out.
“That is why we said by 2025, the sector will fund itself,” he said.
The chairman, who spoke on the uniqueness of the carnival, said, “What stands us out is our competitive genre, our carnival is interpreted using elements of theatre from plot, costumes, music, dance to run.
“But we do not pride ourselves that we made it, God gave it to us.”
Speaking on the reason the international carnival was not held, Onah said the commission was discouraged due to the unstable status of the dollar.
“You can see that the dollar has become football, you cannot plan with an unpredictable dollar and we decided to introduce the structure of co-sponsorship,” he said
Onah expressed appreciation for Governor Otu recognising his strong commitment to improving lives and empowering young people.
He said that the governor’s support and involvement played a significant role in the success of the carnival, making it a memorable event with a large turnout.
“We are lucky to have a governor that believes in the people. He has shown strong affiliation to change lives and to engage the young people.
“And this brings us to the reason for this carnival, the role of carnival calabar and its opportunities in the creative economy.
“How can this change the lives of our boys and girls? This brought us to the question that, are we going to continue in arts for arts sake?, which is leisure or arts as a commodity and this is what we are bringing to the table.
“That is why we introduced training; to train our young ones on the opportunities in the sector, the dos and don’ts on the carnival route, product knowledge, customer care and customer service.
“And we have been blessed, having been trained at world carnivals like that of Trinidad and Tobago as well as Rio de Janeiro, that are culturally inclined and mechanical,” he said.
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