PREVIEW
Africanival
July 13-14 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
105 Avenue and 107 Street, Edmonton
Free
Watching Africanival grow into a provincial event in just three years has executive producer Frankline Agbor thinking he’s doing something right.
Ten years ago when Agbor moved to Edmonton, he noticed there was a large African population without an anchor event drawing them together.
“A group of friends and I together decided we would like to celebrate African culture in all its splendour and glory,” said Agbor, who as publisher of Diversity Magazine uses his marketing savvy to promote the event.
At its 2017 inaugural year, the festival attracted 10,000 people to its Winston Churchill Square location. Due to the square’s ongoing construction, this year’s July 13 and 14 festival will be held near MacEwan University, 105 Avenue and 107 Street.
“It was too successful. We did not expect that much interest and people surprised us coming from across Alberta.”
Early on it became obvious, that for all races, the festival was an exciting opportunity to express and connect with African-Albertans and share their identity and culture.
With several years experience in fine-tuning, the festival hosts a flag parade, African cultural performances, a gospel competition, dance classes, a fashion show, market crafts, and food trucks – all on a grassy floor.
The big headline act this year is the Melisizwe Brothers, a pop trio with the assurance, control and professionalism reminiscent of the Jackson 5. They perform Sunday at 7 p.m.
“They’re pretty popular. They’re young. They do presentations at schools to empower youth to believe in themselves and follow their dreams. They go beyond music.”
Additional professional performers from Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Uganda, Burundi, Senegal, Mali, Gambia and the Ivory Coast have an opportunity to display their high octane performances.
Saturday features a special fashion show with models strutting traditional garments from the Ivory Coast while Sunday features a more eclectic runway.
Dance, a dominant aspect of African culture, is celebrated as a competition.
“Anybody can come and dance from different parts of the world – India, the Latino countries, Cuba, the Caribbean. We want to bring some diversity into the festival. So for the dance competition, we want to bring in every culture.”
Anyone shy about shakin’ their bootie can drop by for a few dance classes. This year the classes focus on Cuban and Sangean dance forms, Ivorian dance ballet and Métis cultural dance.
And if all the action makes one hungry, 12 food trucks will serve 30 cultural dishes at the food corner. The specialties range from goat meat, Jollof rice and caterpillars to Jerk chicken, pastelitos, samosas and more.
“At this festival, you get an entire community participating and you can discover all aspects of African culture – music, dance, fashion, food. It’s all there and anybody can enjoy it and learn from it.”
