Calabar Carnival & Festival

The 2024 Calabar Carnival & Festival is an annual event known as Africa's Biggest Street Party. This unique and famous cultural festival displays African culture and heritage through music, dressing, drama, and other artistic creativities of talented persons.

The Cross River State Governor, Sen. Bassey Otu, has released the theme of the 2024 Calabar Carnival, "Our Shared Prosperity," at an event at the Pearl Hall or Transcorp Hotel in Calabar. This year, the carnival will be held on December 27th, 2024 (New Year's Eve), at Millennium Park.

The festival has improved the cultural aspect of the Nigerian people. The carnival, presumed to be the largest in Africa, is highly costumed to reflect the people's cultural heritage.

The traditional ruler of the state that usually hosts the festival is known as Obong in the Efik language, and their cabinets will also participate in this unique cultural carnival. 

Traditional title holders and worthy illustrious sons and daughters continuously partake in the carnival, which attracts over two million spectators from various parts of the globe who come to watch the tremendous cultural display of this rare kind, which is primarily covered by many media industries.

The Obong, his cabinet members, and other traditional title holders dress in their traditional regalia to reflect on the cultural carnival. 

Calabar cultural carnival is not only for Calabar indigenes and the Efik tribe; it is for all who love cultural celebrations to participate in this unique annual festival and are always enthusiastic. The Governor of Cross River State 2004 initiated the Calabar Carnival in. The carnival was brought into the state because of his vision, which was making the state the number one tourist place and hospitality in Nigeria and Africa. 

This year's performance at the yearly festival, tagged as "Africa's Biggest Street Party," will include performances of carnival bands such as Seagull, Passion 4, Master Blaster, Bayside, and Freedom Bands but a few.

The Calabar Carnival provides entertainment for millions of people who come annually to Calabar for the festival and has also boosted the tourism industry for its stakeholders.

The Calabar carnival and festival are unique because the celebration has promoted the unity and pride of Africa through the display and interpretation of African culture. The carnival has attracted foreigners to the country, boosting tourism.

The festival has a day dedicated to the international carnival, where foreign artists and celebrities occupy the streets of Calabar. Furthermore, the Calabar Carnival promotes the preservation of our beliefs and culture.

Calabar Carnival is the pride of African heritage and has become Africa's number one tourism hub.

Calabar, also called Canaan, is the capital of Cross River State in south southern Nigeria. It was formally named Akwa Akpa from the Efik language.

The city is near the Calabar and Great Kwa Rivers, including the creeks of Cross River State. Calabar is typically categorized as Nigeria's tourism capital.

Calabar, blessed with beautiful landscapes and natural wonders, has been tagged "The people's paradise."

Therefore, Calabar is known to be a city of carnivals, a place of tourism, and Africa's biggest party. Since theCalabar carnival started, the date of the event has been the exact timetable.

The major carnival event usually starts in the last two weeks of the Calabar carnival. The carnival is separated into four parts, which include the following:

2nd – 14th December is the Millennium Week, 15th – 20th December is the Sports Week. 21th -27th December is the TINAPA Family Festival, 28th -31st December is the Carnival Week

The Calabar carnival festival kicks off officially with a tree-lightening ceremony. The first three weeks of the event will be musical entertainment, street parties, art shows, food competitions, an esteemed essay writing competition, masque events, and traditional dances.

Some of the major events featured in the Calabar carnival festival are the crowning of the carnival queens and kings for each band, J'ouvert Band fetes, the children carnival, the Christmas party cultural carnival, the Annual Ekpe masquerade festival, the Mary Slessor Golf Charity dinner.

The festivals may include music performances from both national and international artists.

The festival will usher in performances such as Fashion Show, Beauty pageant, Boat Regatta, Christmas Village, Traditional Dances, and the Annual Ekpe masquerade festival.

This year's event, held in December, will likely feature some international music artists and Nigerian music stars.

The state is also preparing to host more than 2 million people from 25 countries worldwide. The Cross River State Carnival Commission proudly organizes it.

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