25 COUNTRIES TO PARTICIPATE IN 2017 CARNIVAL CALABAR FESTIVALS

No fewer than 25 countries from Africa and other continenets of the world are expected to grace the 2017 Carnival Calabar festivals as against 14 countries that took part in the festivals in 2016,they are Morrocco, Tanazania,South Korea,South Africa, and Kenya among others.

Mr. Kenneth Anklah, Special Adviser to Gov Ayade on Events Management made this known on Wednesday while briefing journalists on the calendar of this year’s Carnival Calabar festivals with the theme “Migration “ stated that the increased numbers of countries participating in this year’s event is an indication that the annual event was growing bigger and better.

According to him, a live audience of 264 million viewed the event via social media while 55 countries also watched on DSTV in 2016 edition of the event.

Anklah said the idea was to add value yearly to the festival as we have always been doing in a bid to increase the excitement.

“What we are selling is experience , which is the latest innovation in tourism marketing and tourism is the only product that you need to get to the source to enjoy and that is what we intend to achieve with Carnival Calabar”

“A lot of content has been added and more exciting event introduced and for a product to last for more than a decade, there need to be innovation and this means it will attract more audience ,we want to increase the tempo of the product we have already created “

Speaking further, the S.A said a “Black African Festival” has also been added to create a veritable platform for both local and international artiste to perform in a bid to give local content of breath of life.

He also added that Wonders on wheels a show of vintage cars to allow audience see some exotic cars that were in vogue and ruled in their time to be seen by the generation of today.

“On the streets alone we have about 800,000 people watching it and we have also introduced the wonders on wheels as part as an added value to allow tourist see vintage cars”

Artistes expected to perform at the various shows and events encapsulated in the festival include Mafikozolo from South Africa,Tuface ,Davido,Timaya,Teckno and more with the Minister of Information and Culture ,Lai Mohammed to flag off the event.