Former Minister of Culture and Tourism, High Chief Edem Duke-tutored Calas Vegas Band, has won the coveted top position of N10 million of the N55 million on offer at the ‘Carnival Calabar” event, which held at the main bowl of the U. J. Esuene Stadium, Calabar, beating the festival’s most successful band, Passion 4, which came second, and Seagull Band which came third, in the process.
Otu gave the assurance, While flagging-off the main event of the 2023 Carnival Calabar International Festival, where seven competing bands gave scintillating performances in competition for prizes, Cross River State Governor, Bassey Otu gave assurances that that making the Carnival Calabar International Festival a bigger platform remains one of his campaign promises.
While giving his speech, he said:
“This is one of our campaign promises that we are definitely going to bring carnival back and on a bigger platform.
‘What you have seen is the tip of the iceberg because we are going to move it to the next level.”
As disclosed to the News Agency of Nigeria by the Commissioner for Information in Cross River, Erasmus Ekpang, no fewer than 15 million people across the globe watched the main event of this year’s main event of the Calabar carnival, tagged: “Carnival Calabar”, which was beamed live on DSTV on Thursday.
The carnival was held in the Northern and Central senatorial districts of the state to give residents in these areas a sense of belonging.
According to NAN, no fewer than 15 states and two Africa countries tool part in the cultural aspect of the 31-day carnival which kicked off on December 1. It also reported that the state government introduced some new dimension into this year’s edition of the carnival which started in 2004.
