By Muhammad Umar Faruk
The Arewa Fashion and Food Festival was started with one definite goal in mind: changing the narrative.
According to the organisation, it’s a festival with a difference as it celebrates Northern Nigeria. By that, its means culture, it’s heritage, food and fashion.
The event stood out in setting out to alter a lot of stereotypes about the Northern narrative being projected from within and outside Nigeria. That they had to run with umbrellas over their heads because residents are afraid, bomb can drop from the sky at any moment, talk like that, or that we’re all Hausa, without knowing the other cultural groups in existence.
The event in its entirety tells the story of the arewa people from their perspective, and we’re making room for the world to listen to it’s truth, unfiltered.
Arewa Fashion and food festival has also served as a major medium for grooming street talent, giving them a platform to stand side by side with world-class material. Part of what they have planned to do next is to organise events and make it possible for the emerging designers and Chefs (with established trainings by the world-class) to become more than what they see themselves now.
In the long run, it is believed that the festivals bring people together, and food keeps them together.
Hence, the Arewa Fashion and Food Festival is here to stay for a long time, as it has now become an annual event to hold routinely.
