"The message we look at most festivals that have happened, the content of their displays is always the same." It’s always highlighted with fire display but we thought, Lagos is very rich in terms of its culture and in terms of its formative experience." so we thought it would be good to look at the content we have, like have mentioned before.
We thought it would be good to put into under some kind of formative story" he said.
Badejo, who is based in United Kingdom, explained the content of the opening and closing ceremonies of past editions of National Sports Festival were always the same in content and highlighted with fire display Eyo Masquerade , Contemporary dancers, Royal dancers calisthenic among others.
"The story that we are going to work on, which I research into." I thought the migration story of how people came to Lagos would be interesting.
"There are many stories about Lagos, this one of the Olofin coming from Ile-ife, and the mythology of the methodological story that goes around it where the Awo and Ise, which is the Osuka, has to be put on a river".
"The first place where it sank, which is the Isheri, that is where the Isheri people came from and they have spread into Lagos.
"The same place where the pot finally sanked in Ido and that’s where is the Awo, called the Awori and the Aworis and Isheri’s are the ones who have spread all through Lagos.
"So we look at that story and we loosely put it around all the contents we have and that make the story of the show from the beginning to the end. Among the art that developed, we choose Music".
The Artistic Director, who claimed to have make research into the history of Lagos to build a concept for the Eko 2012 Games, said the event which would be a big cast of four thousand people in different capacities also accommodated late Fela Ransome Kuti music titled "Water no get enemy “adding that about two hundred of late Fela Anikulapo Ransome Kuti dancers were used in the production as well as his band.
"Well it is a big cast, we almost four thousand people in different capacities."We have content of the whole show, that is the masquerade, carnival, dancers, we have calisthenic of a thousand pupils".
We have masquerade like i said ,we carnival, we the Eyo dancers, we have the royal dancers we have the royal female drummers, who initiate Eyo from its beginning." Then we have the contemporary dancers who come with their expression in things like the anthem, theme music, and National Anthem".
"Lagos has really developed many Musicians, Ayo Bankole, Shodeke and also the honourable Fela Anikulapo Ransome Kuti. "So we thought this is an opportunity to use Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s concept of Music because water is very important to Lagos.
"Lagos is an aquatic state and we use that water to make it possible for us to understand the value of water, the friendliness of Lagos state. " Like Water No Get Enemy, that Fela sang.
We use it in the production, bringing over two hundred of his dancers into the show plus a band of his Afro Beat".
According to him "Water no get enemy" sang by Fela Kuti was synonymous to Lagos State because Lagos is an aquatic State and also to make a lot of people understand the value of water and how friendly Lagosians are. "Friendliness and accommodating of Lagos, because Lagos is water based.
It is very friendly." Nobody can exist without water. Water is synonymous with Lagos and that is why Lagos is a very friendly place"."We have only been working together for about a week in term of working together but as individual groups, we have been working for about a month which is not enough".You will be seeing a meaningful festival.
He assured He said the team has been training together for about three weeks and a month as individual groups for a month, adding that Nigerians would witness a meaningful opening and closing ceremonies.
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