By Eugene Davis
The Taste of Ghana -a wholly Ghanaian festival depicting culture, food, fashion, art and music may be replicated in some of the regional cities in the future, CEO of Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Yofi Grant has hinted.
Taste of Ghana is a one-of-its-kind festival of Ghanaian culture hosted by the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre annually in December. The festival seeks to present the distinctive, authentic and traditional facets of the Ghanaian way of life under one umbrella; through food, art, made-in-Ghana products, cinematography, fashion among others.
Speaking to journalists at the opening of the two day event, Mr.Grant said “ This is Taste of Ghana [3.0] and this year, we have bigger space so that people can park their cars and then come into the grounds, as you can see, some of them are exciting, the cultural bit is amazing, I have seen rich display of culture from different regions in Ghana, I have seen food from almost every quarter of Ghana, fashion show and music will come, and we will end with a concert with some of the big names, it’s very exciting for me that we can provide all these for free for Ghanaians to see the warmth we have in the country and is things that are with us, you don’t have to pay for it, you have to experience it, so we are looking to see if we can replicate this in some of the regions in the future, so that people who can’t come to Accra will still have a taste of Ghana but I am delighted we are here today.”
According to Mr. Grant said the event that showcases Ghana to the diaspora has grown in leaps and bounds in the past few years, and added it is on this growth that the single event has now been extended to a two-day festival, promising a bigger and better event next year.
The CEO of Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) Akwasi Agyeman said he was excited about the turn of events and the event presented an opportunity to put the country on the international spotlight.
“it’s a sight to behold, seeing our cultural elements on display, everything coming together well is really what the taste of Ghana is about and so far, we say so good, we have seen different types of cultures, food and in all this we are using it to sell and market ourselves to the foreigners and diasporans who come to the country.”
The event is a collaboration between Ghana Tourism Authority and GIPC, and many others including Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Industry, Finance, Diaspora Office at the Presidency, Beyond the Return Office -it represents a cross cutting view of Ghana.
The two-day event aside the arts, food and cultural festival also witnessed some splendid performances from ace musician Stonebwoy,Kofi Kinata, Obrafour, Edem, Gyakie, among others.
