Community cultural festivals.
Many communities in Kenya hold annual community cultural festivals to celebrate their cultures. These festivals have been part and parcel of Kenyan community celebrations over the years. They are deeply enshrined as part of cultural practice and mark rites of passage and cycles of community traditions and practices. They are vehicles through which cultural traditions and practices are transmitted through performances and exhibitions. They promote intercultural understanding and showcase various communities’ rich and diverse cultural expressions. Further they are platforms for nurturing talents and provide avenue to market cultural expressions. These festivals’ are major tourist attractions both at local and international levels. The community cultural festivals are deep rooted and city and urban dwellers have designed unique cultural celebrations in urban settings. For example many hotels in Nairobi host annual community cultural celebrations themed on particular ethnic groups and these attract large audiences. The celebrations in urban settings are not only avenues for cultural expression but economic ventures for major hotels. These celebrations keep alive cultural connections of city dwellers with their ethnic cultures
The main feature of the measure is the local festival commitee that plans and executes the community cultural festival. The committee is comprised of local cultural leaders representing various cultural expressions valued by the community. The commitee also co-opts other members from the local government representing relevant officials and politicians that seem keen to promote culture. Community cultural festivals happen annually at specific periods of the year that concide with productive cycles of the life of communities. The fetistivals are major platforms through which kenyan communities celebrate their unique cultures. The festivals include cultural performaces and exhibitions of uniques cultural expressions by various age sets and gender. The festivals are an institution through which cultural expressions are preserved and transmited to the next generation. These festivals are a major attrcation to the local communities to celebrate their cultural diversity and though they attract visitors from other communities and tourists majority have not been commercialized as ecoenomic ventures. The festivals though have influenced local governments to provide and improve spaces for cultural expressions and dialogue as the fetivals are held at public spaces.
Mainstreaming of culture in development
- A coordinated guide on cultural development at national and county levels
-Enjoyment of Culture
-Protection of cultural expressions
- cultural creativity
- visibility of community cultures
-Enhanced collaboration mechanisms between the national and county governments
-Enhanced participation of citizens in cultural governance
- Promotion of national cultural expressions
- Increased partnerships and collaborations
- investment in Culture
- Awareness on importance of culture in development.
Though the government partly funds the feativals the main budget of the festival and resources is done by the festival commitees from varous partners and sponsors