Safe Streets Festival

I attended the first street festival in Monrovia. I was a little flabbergasted to note that even a street festival (a cultural event) needed to have donors help organise it.

It should be noted that back in 2013, the Nee Gba River Festival was organised by private efforts and since then it has not

We went after midday and, indeed, parts of Broad and Randall Streets were cut off from traffic. We parked our car near the UBA Bank at the top of Broad Street and walked down. We stopped briefly at the Sacred Heart Cathedral Church to take a photo. What a magnificent entrance it has. 

There was a stage with speakers right at the corner of Broad and Mechlin Streets and there was a very big crowd around it. There are booksellers under the old Ministry of Education in the same vicinity where I always try to find some books. So I bought some. 

We kept going and, on the corner of Broad and Randall, there was a stall by Cica Motors. Up Randall Street, there were many other stalls and, we met our friends Luca and Manfred and other known artisans. 

It was a warm sunny day and, since I've been suffering for about a week with a nasty chest infection, I was quite tired at the end of it and we went home in the middle of the afternoon. 

I must say I was rather disappointed with the so-called Festival. All those donor names are splashed on the leaflet but what went into this? These were the usual stalls one sees in town at events like the US Embassy Arts and Crafts Fair. At least there should have been some food stalls, shade, proper places to sit, and some activities for children? And, why not give a facelift to the buildings with at least some paint? One feels everything that is organised in Monrovia is extremely shabby and a 'half baked' effort. 

I hope the public enjoyed this event at least. Perhaps there was a good performance on the stage later on.

Here are some photographs of my purchases.