When a Bigger Festival threatens Tradition

Regions want global festivals. The custodians who hold the tradition need seats at the table. The 2025 WEF Symposium report sets six ways to get there.

May 2025

You might think the way to protect a living tradition is to build the stage: promote the festival, put up the venues, draw the crowds. But what happens after the performance? After the festival? How do we ensure that the custodians of the living tradition have a say in how it grows and evolves, especially when growth, when left uncontrolled, can hollow out the very thing being celebrated.

That was the central tension at the inaugural World Egungun Festival (WEF) Symposium, convened in Ibadan on 14 May 2025 by The Sahara Centre, the University of Ibadan’s Institute of African Studies, the Oyo State Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Adayeba Culture Tourism Foundation. The WEF Symposium heralded the opening of the World Egungun Festival, the second edition with over 1,400 people in attendance.

As Oyo State positions its festivals as global tourism assets, three pressures need attention now:

• The local textile industry is struggling against cheaper imports.
• Apprenticeship in sacred garment making has virtually ceased.
• And custodians are treated as performers, not as governance partners.

The 2025 WEF Symposium report outlines the proceedings from the event, which had custodians, scholars, officials and tourism practitioners in attendance. The report sets six key interconnected recommendations to address the outlined challenges. These include the need for a statutory council for cultural sustainability with seats allocated for custodians, provision of emergency support for master artisans, and strategies to create a pipeline of apprentices.

If you plan, fund or visit a festival, ask who has a seat in its decisions: the custodians, or only the funders.

Partner details

The 2025 WEF Symposium was delivered by The Sahara Centre, the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ibadan, the Oyo State Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Red Clay and the Adayeba Culture Tourism Foundation.

The 2025 World Egúngún Festival Symposium was delivered through a collaborative partnership involving the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, the Oyo State Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Red Clay and the Adayeba Culture Tourism Foundation