The maiden edition of the Wax Print Festival was held in Accra as part of the Year of Return – Ghana 2019 events with a rich display of fabrics that exhibited an array of fabrics akin to the African culture and creativity.
For three days, the festival celebrated African textiles through music and arts, giving young fashion designers a unique platform to showcase their works. There were exhibitions of fashion related items, food and beverage, visual and contemporary arts, fashion shows, kente weaving, musical performances and a lot more. The crowning moments was the premiering of the Wax Print film which was followed by discussions on its content.
Amma Aboagye, founding curator of Afropole, who hosted the event, said, “We are celebrating African ingenuity, we are celebrating textiles, we are celebrating arts. What comes from our hands and how it is valuable to the world, and why we should work to protect and also share what it is that we do with our textiles. So the inspiration for this is recognizing that the rest of the world who are looking at African prints as an addition to their closet; they love it.”
She explained that as Africans are becoming more conscious about what make them unique, there was the need to embrace and market such authentic fabrics through such exhibitions and festivals.
“So we wanted to create a space and a forum for us to real shine the light on what this fabric is, what it is about and how we can put it out to the world” she said.
The organisers also believe that the Wax Print Festival is an important way of pushing “Afrodiasporans” and Africans to be nuanced in their conversation about wax print and consider the multiplicity of ways in which, from the cotton to textile to dress, Africans can benefit socially and economically form the industry.
The event was held under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture and the Ghana Tourism Authority.
