Every year, thousands of people gather to catch a glimpse of the masquerades, and have feel of the Sekondi-Takoradi Street Carnival also known as Masquerades Festival.
The Ankos Festival, also known as the Takoradi street carnival or Masquerade Festival, is a Ghanaian yearly festival held in Takoradi. Its major feature is dozens of groups of people or teams dressed in outrageous costumes who perform dance routines to demonstrate their abilities and talents.
People from Sekondi -Takoradi who have travelled to other parts of the country, and even those in the diaspora return home to join the colourful display. The carnival is held at Sekondi-Takoradi.
Over 40,000 people came from all over the world to see the dazzling spectacle this year.
Hon. Okyere Darko-Mensah, Western Regional Minister and Minister of Takoradi West, Dr. Dominic Eduah, Executive Director of the GNPC Foundation, and many other dignitaries attended this year’s event.
Various masquerade clubs with a passion for culture and art compete to be the best of many.
The various masquerade clubs parade through the main streets as part of the carnival. They then band together and set up a stage at Takoradi’s Jubilee Grounds to demonstrate their skills, culture, and other arts to the general public by dancing and singing various songs with a brass band.
The carnival’s excitement is not only in the dancing abilities and colorful costumes of various designs, but also in the masks that each masquerade wears and how they appear in them.
Watch video below