Ekiti State government has described its annual arts and culture festival as a platform for the discovery and development of talents.
The state commissioner for Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, Professor Rasaki Ojo Bakare who stated this said talents and works of arts abound in the state to be showcased to the world.
Ojo Bakare spoke in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital, while addressing newsmen on the ministry’s preparations towards the 2024 edition of the state festival of arts and culture.
The commissioner said, “Governor Biodun Oyebanji has given us the go ahead to host Ekiti State Festival of Arts and Culture (EKIFEST) beginning from August 6-10, 2024.
‘’The festival of Arts and Culture began in 2012 and has been held almost every year since then. Even during the COVID-19 we had what we called the COVID version. It was just a two-day edition that we did in the closet at Adetiloye Hall, that was in 2020.
“The only year it didn’t hold was in 2023 because of the transition from one governor to the other. This was done for us to properly plan within to do a robust festival. So Mr Governor has given us a marching order that EKIFEST must hold this year and has to be the best ever.
“EKIFEST started because of the need to create a platform for the local governments to bring whatever they have from their environments to the centre for purposes of exposure, exhibition, marketing, development and all that the work can help develop to do with those products.”