Lagos Street Carnival slated to hold Dec 3

According to Hon. Akinsola who also doubles as Special Adviser to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on Arts and Culture the aim of government is to take the carnival round Lagos because in Governor Ambode’s acceptance speech he assured that he will run a government of inclusion not in infrastructure alone but in every sense of governance. She noted that Governor Ambosde’s administration is using project (THEAS) Tourism, Hospitality, Entertainment, Arts and Sports as thrust to change the narrative of Lagos as a tourism destination.

“We are repackaging the old carnival to include more platforms like possession, stage performances by musicians and cultural shows. Notthing Hill Carnival started like this some years ago in London. Last year it celebrated 50 years and it has grown bigger and this is what we are looking at. Lagos is the city in terms of tourism and excellence. And we want to make Lagos the preferred destination in Africa. For instance, Lagos Fiesta has generated lots of interest among Nigerians in Diaspora. The same thing we are getting from Lagos Street Party which we have redesigned as carnival… We are looking ahead to the future on how the carnival can be sustained. Government is not funding it so that change of administration will not affect its continuity,” she added. The carnival will move to another location next year.

Continuing, she said: “We have consultant handling the carnival. Lagos state government is only providing support services to the organisers. Visitors from outside Lagos to the carnival will spend money on transport, accommodation in hotels thereby enabling hotels to pay consumption tax to state government as revenue.”

On the choice of musicians for the carnival she said: “We feel the pulse of Nigerians to know their taste in music. We are therefore pulling from different genres like fuji, juju, hip hop, afro, gospel, waka and R & B   to meet their taste. There will be Olamide, Salawa Abeni, Kesh, Malaika, Tope sax among others. It will feature floats, possession, stage performances and cultural shows.”

Hon Akinsola said that the carnival content will have different platforms for children and adults featuring cultural troupes and artistes of different genres of music including juju, pop, Rhythm and Blues, fuji, afrobeat and waka among others. It will start by 12 noon till midnight.

She said apart from creating enabling environment of fun and entertainment, small scale business operators will have opportunities to sell their products, noting that as you enjoy there is also the opportunity for economic activities to go on.


“Security of life and property is assured as security officials are on top of the situation. The roads leading to the venue will be closed and there will be designated routes for movement of vehicles and people with guide from LASTMA and ministry of transport,” she said. She disclosed that before the event starts, the ministry will roll out the names of the sponsors of the carnival ‘but as at now we still need to put few things in place. Interestingly, there are lots of corporate bodies that are showing interest.’

She assured that the state is fully prepared to provide security of life and property during the carnival including effective crowd control. “We expect a larger turnout this year. In terms of security and crowd control, the ministry is working in conjunction with relevant agencies such as the security officials, LASTMA, Fire Service, LASABUS and LAWMA among others.