By Yunus S Saliu
The Heritage Management Organization–Greece under African Programs on Wednesday conducted a two-day online training workshop for the Gambia Festival Management and Operations with a main focus on introduction to event management.
The online training was joined by different event and festival organizers from various regions across the country and gathered at nearby venues including Kankurang Center and Museum in Janjanbureh, Central River Region, Wassu Stone Circles, the Heritage Management Office in Barra North Bank Region, NCAC RDD Annex along Kairaba Avenue Greater Banjul Area among other places.
The training covered different topics including the introduction and definition of festivals and types of festivals, the purpose and impact of festivals building image and identity through festivals, planning, organizing, and marketing of festivals for day one. Day two covered sponsorship and partnership public relations, communications, and social media for festivals while the operational aspects of the festivals covered legal and ethical issues, risk assessment and management, crowd management, security management, sustainable practices for greening festivals, and post-festival evaluation.
The organizer, Mina Morou of the Heritage Management Organization, Greece, extolled participants for their steadfastness saying working with them has been a wonderful experience, “Thank you for your participation.”
She applauded the trainer, Hanine Lakkis for her wealth of experience and exceptionally courteous and generous in her presentations throughout the training.
On behalf of the National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Sanna B. Jarju, Head of the Department for Literature, Performing and Fine Arts and ICH National Focal Point at the NCAC thanked the Heritage Management and all the facilitators for offering this valuable training opportunity to the Gambia festival organizers.
He said the training was done at a time when there are a large number of emerging community-based initiative festivals, most of which are struggling to sustain it. “For this reason, the training can be extended in the form of step-down for festival committees especially those in the rural areas,” he appealed.
Malick Kujabi, National Focal Representative, The Gambia for Heritage Management acknowledged the commitment and participation of the event and festival organizers team and also commended them for their dedication throughout the training.
The team in general expressed their profound gratitude to Mina Morou and the team including Hanine Lakkis, Malick Kujabi, the entire Heritage Management team – Eirini Oikonomidi, Fotini Giannoulidi, and others behind the scenes.
Meanwhile, Hanine Lakkis, talking about festival origin in her presentations stated that festivals have been celebrated since ancient times, noting that the earliest festivals seem to have been connected with offerings to the dead, later people celebrated the change of seasons with festivals.
She disclosed that festivals are cultural and social events that bring people together to celebrate and enjoy different forms of artistic expression, music, food, and traditions “These events offer a unique and vibrant experience.”
There are different types of festivals which are art, book, film, folk, food, music, religious, cultural festivals, and a lot more, and all with the main purpose of entertainment, celebration, and having fun, thus “festivals in villages help keeping alive the traditions and enhancing its socio-economy.”
Therefore, she noted, festivals and cultural events help to revitalize cultural practices, educational opportunities, economic impact, showcase diversity, strengthen community bonds, and preserving traditions.