Events

Guinness World Recorder, Hilda Bassey, Graces Gastronomy Festival

Published

2 years ago

July 25, 2024

Guinness World Recorder, Hilda Bassey, Graces Gastronomy Festival

The National Institute For Tourism and Hospitality, NIHOTOUR, organisers of Gastronomy Festival ( Food festival) has announced that Nigeria’s Hilda Effiong Bassey, the current world record holder for the ‘Longest Cooking Marathon’ will be participating in the food festival on Saturday, the 17th of June 2023, at the Abuja International Conference Centre.

This year’s Gastronomy Festival is the third consecutive food and beverage exhibition and sampling event, initiated and annually organized by NIHOTOUR, since 2021.

The Gastronomy Festival is one of the largest of its kind in Africa – with public exhibition and free tasting of hundreds of culinary masterpieces from Nigeria’s 300 ethnic groups and the international communality including cuisines from China, Spain, Senegal, Trinidad & Tobago, and Cote D’Ivoire.

Gastronomy Festival is organized by National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), a parastatal of the Federal Government established by an Act of Parliament to train, certify and register personnel in Nigeria’s hospitality, travel, and tourism sector.

Speaking on the invitation of Hilda Bassey to the Gastronomy Festival in Abuja, the Director General of NIHOTOUR, Nura Sani Kangiwa, said that “by law, NIHOTOUR, as Nigeria’s lead hospitality and tourism occupational skills development Institute is required to mitigate the skills-gap challenges of personnel in the industry and to equally drum-up support for practitioners that are, despite the odds, achieving measurable success the tradecraft and Hilda Bassey is one of such rare cases of gastronomic success Nigeria has attained.”

He explained that “Besides the new world record of cooking achieved by Hilda, as adjudged by the committee of the Guinness World Records, NIHOTOUR, recognize that her success has become a beacon that is now encouraging more Nigerian youths to take up careers in the hospitality and catering sub-sectors.

He explained that the organisation’s primary mandate is to enable people to acquire requisite skills to become self-employed, by adding value to the hospitality and tourism industry, and Hilda Bassey exemplifies that.

NIHOTOUR Gastronomy Festival is conceptualized and programmed to upskill Nigerian gastronomes and culinary artists on the technicalities, and emerging global best practices, of processing, preparing, presenting, packaging and promotion of foods, especially Nigerian traditional cuisines. The theme for the 2023 NIHOTOUR Gastronomy Festival is “Culinary Arts: The Gateway to Growing Tourism Destinations”.

The Embassy of Spain to Nigeria has brought in chef Alex Marugan, a celebrated Spanish chef to train and share best practices and emerging global trends of culinary arts with some select culinary schools in Nigeria. The trainings will hold on 15th and 16th of June in Abuja.

More so, Chef Alex will prepare and display the best of Spanish cuisines at the Gastronomy Festival on Saturday for visitors to the event to engage him and taste his meals.

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Culture

WAKE UP! Art Exhibition Returns for a Second Act

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Mariam Balogun

The contemporary art and photography exhibition “Wake Up!” is back again for a second edition.

Curated by Awele Onwordi, Wake Up! 2 exhibition pays homage to the Nigerian youth and burgeoning street culture which many of its contributing artists reference in their works.

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Titled “Young, Wild, Free”, the exhibition celebrates the creativity, resilience, freedom and cultural influence found in Nigerian youth.

Taking aim at societal issues and economic concerns, the exhibit reflects the youth and their refusal to compromise or bow despite all the challenges stacked against them while charting youth culture through art, music, fashion, skateboarding, photography and community.

The exhibition will be held, once again, at the Angel and Muse Gallery at 25 Sumbo Jibowu street off Ribadu Road off Awolowo Road in Ikoyi.

It will open on Saturday 5 September 2026 and will run until 11 September 2026
This second edition which focuses on celebrating, nurturing and exploring artistic practices rooted in youth and street culture will feature works from DENCITY and SUPERGLIDER HOUSE.

Exhibiting artists include Ajilore Kehinde – their work is deeply influenced by Nigerian street culture and works of other artists like Slawn, Peters Ejiro, etc, Chuka Onwordi – graphic designer who embodies themes of death, melancholy and beauty in his works, ZIDYEP – Abuja based creative whose works move between digital and physical spaces through art, graphic design and air brushing , Franklyn Okoye – graphic designer and artist whose works explore themes of identity and hyper-reality, Awele Onwordi – founder & curator of WAKE UP and multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans character art, creative logo design, album covers and more , Oluchi Kogolo – digital illustrator whose work explores street culture, personality and storytelling through a raw and playful visual style and Kozetuo Apeji – multidisciplinary artists who work explores experimental approaches to problem solving through both digital and traditional art forms.

Commenting on the exhibition in her curatorial statement, Awele noted that “despite economic instability, limited opportunities and socio-political challenges, Nigerian youth continue to shape culture through music, fashion, art, skateboarding, raves, photography and community.”

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Continuing and harping on the raison d’etre of the exhibition she said, “Young, Wild and Free exists to celebrate Nigerian youth while also creating a platform that supports and amplifies them.”