The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Akwasi Agyemang, has disclosed how his outfit’s intervention helped to avoid the cancellation of the 2023 Chale Wote Street Art Festival.
According to him, the Ghana Tourism Authority made huge financial investments to make sure the event came off as scheduled.
He also noted that there were other controversies surrounding the festival that were resolved with the leaders of the various towns to ensure there was an appropriate route for the festivity.
Speaking in an interview with Hitz FM, on Monday, September 4, 2023, Akwasi Agyemang narrated the crucial role the Ghana Tourism Authority played which prevented the Chalewote festival from being canceled despite the enormous challenges.
“If you talk to the organizers of Chale Wote [festival], if we [Ghana Tourism Authority] hadn't stepped in this year, it would not happen," he said. "Yeah, it wouldn't have happened because there were serious issues from moving the tent from Jamestown, the new area.
"You needed so many means because that place is a security zone. And so I don't want to talk about that on air. You are there.
“We provided a lot of financial support to make sure that it took off. But given that there were some controversies around the movement, I mean, there was another festival also happening at Jamestown at the same time, the Womba Arts Festival.
"So it became a little bit of an issue. So we've engaged with both the organizers of Womba and the organizers of Chale Wote," he said.
The CEO of Ghana Tourism Authority added that “we came in at the last minute to make sure that we salvage the situation. And I believe that if you look at the numbers that he generated, even though we didn't have the sort of prior promotion, thankfully multimedia came in at the last minute and at least gave it some push.”
Akwasi Agyemang called on the general public to support such festivities in order to help showcase the culture of the country to the world at large.
“Let's make sure that we are able to promote because as you said, rightly, a lot of people come we get the data. A lot of people come to Ghana because of this street art festival. And we shouldn't kill it on the experience of anything.
"If there are disagreements, which there were between organizers and the community in Jamestown, let's find a way to deal with them. We should be able to make things work in terms of the marketing strategies that we have deployed,” he added.
Chale Wote 2023 was held at the Black Star Square in Osu, Accra, Ghana between August 21 to 27.
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CEO of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Akwasi Agyemang