PANAFEST Kicks Off July 24

The chairman of the Intentional Board of the PANAFEST Foundation, Mr Kojo Yankah, has stated that this year?s PANAFEST will come off as planned, despite recent reports suggesting that the event risks being postponed.

He said, for instance, that on transportation, North American Airlines was charging a cheaper fare of $1,650 to Ghana, instead of the $2,200 charged by some international airlines.

?In spite of all the reports which have filtered through some sections of the media, all arrangements are on course. PANAFEST 2005 kicks off with a carnival on the streets of Cape Coast on July 24, 2005 and ends with an awards dinner dance in Cape Coast on August 1, 2005,? he said at a press conference on the PANAFEST and Emancipation Day in Accra yesterday.

He said although there would be a carnival, a traditional ?akwaaba? ceremony, a Pan African bazzar trade fair and exhibition from July 24, the formal opening would be held on July 27, 2005 at the forecourt of the Cape Coast Castle.

The normal durbar of chiefs, he said, would be held on July 30, 2005 adding that President J. A. Kufuor was expected to attend.

Mr Yankah stated the PANAFEST had achieved international acceptance, since it was logical for a country which had been the beacon of black liberation and had remnants of colonialism in the forts and castles dotted on its coast to host such a grand idea.