People & Lifestyle
PHOTOS: Akple Festival Celebrates Ghana In Grand Style
Call it a reoccurrence of Ghana’s Independence Day experience in 1957, the 2nd edition of the local food party; the Akple festival took revellers back into time with amazing good tunes from the Adaha Dance Band.
After missing out on the 2021 edition due to Covid-19. ‘Brand with Echiri’; organisers of the food festival staged a massive come back and attendees at Mmofra’s Place could not have asked for a better time to experience Ghana’s rich culture than on Sunday, March 6.
The 2nd edition of the festival focused on reminding ourselves of the once upon a time fraternity that goes with the Ghanaian tradition of togetherness until the advent of Covid-19 and brings back the memories, hence the theme Eat large, party hard.
The open-air event kicked off at 11 a.m; with patrons trooping in to buy their favourite local dishes. Clad in their brand uniforms, over 30 vendors participated in the festival to sell different local dishes including Akple with a different accompaniment like Abobi Taadi, Fetri and Ademe which seemed to be the people’s favourite at the festival. Others were kenkey, Kokonte and other local drinks to support the dishes.
The team lead for Akple Festival, Ebenezer Echiri Mensah, emphasized the need to embrace our culture in every way that makes it unique for international export. In his own words, “Ghana has rich traditions, and we can’t afford to hide them in the tunnel. Our job is to sell Ghana, especially to the outside community, and we are committed to this course.”
It was a moment of beauty when the Ezordzinam Fafali Borborbor Group took the floor to serenade the environment. It was an exciting time for the patrons to see beautiful ladies shake their flexible waists with white handkerchiefs. Other patrons couldn’t help but join in the dance.
Patrons who have been enjoying some good times at the festival with many activities like the Akple eating competition plus other exciting games from luxury recreations were thrust into the highest level of excitement when the Adaha Dance band took the stage to perform.
The music group announce their presence with the National Anthem to celebrate Ghana’s 65th Independence Day. What took the crowd into a moment of total bliss was their performance of King Bruce’s Queen Elizabeth and other old tunes taking patrons back to the independence era.
It was more than an experience to see the group on stage performing back to back hit songs from back in the days to current songs for three hours.
Then came that switch from the band to the DJ, which got everyone jumping and singing along was another great experience that went on for hours.
Ask me to describe the festival in one sentence, and I will say, culture was celebrated in the roots of authenticity.
Mr Echiri who is also the CEO of Brand with Echiri, a 360 events house, says the dream is to send the Akple festival outside the perimeters of the country to promote Ghana in the diaspor
