All is now set for the 2013 edition of the Mare Festival in Idanre, Ondo State. As against the expansive events that marked it in the past, the festival holding between December 13 and 14 will be low-key.
According to the State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Kayode Akinmade, the special edition of the annual mountain climbing competition has been dedicated to celebrate the life and times of the late Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Mr. Deji Falae, who until his death was the chairman Local Organising Committee.
It would be recall that, Falae and 15 others died in a crash involving an aircraft on the fleet of the Associated Airlines on October 3 this year, while conveying the remains of the late former Governor Olusegun Agagu from Lagos to Akure for burial.
Akinmade said artistes who had packaged interesting songs and short plays in honour of the late Falae would render them to the admiration of the teeming audience.
He said, “Ordinarily, the state government had thought of suspending the celebration of the Mare Festival this year because we are still mourning our dearly beloved brother but his friends in the entertainment industry pleaded that we should allow them to use the occasion to honour him this year with songs and short plays they had composed for him.”
Akinmade added that government was perfecting strategies to immortalise the late Falae by ensuring that the Idanre hills, which are the focal point of the annual fiesta, is listed by the United Nations Educational and Scientific and Cultural Organisation, as one of the World’s Heritage Sites.
He also said government celebrates the Mare Festival annually in order to showcase the Idanre hills to international tourists with the aim of attracting direct investments in the economy of the state.
He notes, “There is no other hills anywhere in the World that could be compared to what we have in Idanre. The lovely rock formations were special gift to Ondo State and Nigeria in general.”