The colourful carnival featured Egungun, Eyo and Gelede masquerade dancers / Photo: Oluyemi Ogundele

Yoruba celebrate Ankara Day with fanfare in Salzburg, Austria

The Egbe Omo Oduduwa Salzburg (Yoruba Community in Salzburg), Austria, celebrated the Nigeria Cultural Festival in grand style at the weekend.  The event, tagged Yoruba Carnival, was marked in collaboration with the entire Nigerian Community in Austria.

The event was attended by guests from the United Kingdom, France and Germany, among others. The members of Yoruba associations in Munich and Hamburg in Germany as well as others from Vienna, Linz, Graz and Kärnten in Austria trooped into Salzburg in their numbers to grace the occasion.

The Ankara carnival train turned the streets of the Austrian city of Salzburg into a fest of colours / Photo: Oluyemi Ogundele

 

It was the second edition of the cultural extravaganza in Salzburg after the maiden edition held in the summer of 2009.

The carnival uniform is a colourful made in Nigeria Ankara fabric which was well received by all.

The carnival featured Egungun and Gelede masquerade dancers as well as the popular Eyo masquerade performance.


The second part of the event, which was the stage performance, took place in the popular “Freilicht” Museum Salzburg located on the outskirts of the city. The city of Salzburg provided two big luxurious shuttle buses to convey participants to and from the venue. Interestingly, the buses were painted in Nigeria’s green-white-green colour.

Despite the heavy downpour which led to power cut in some part of the city, the event was brought to a successful conclusion at around 10PM on Saturday. It was a day that would go down well in history.

Oluyemi Ogundele

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