Kenya's Lamu Cultural Festival woos tourists [TMC]

The holiday season is upon us! Time to travel.

Tourism has been a key force in promoting festival growth and expansion. Towns, villages and cities are increasingly keen to share their culture, environment and spending opportunities with visitors by the promotion of festivals. One such festival is held annually in Lamu Old Town, a world heritage site in Kenya.

Several competitions and races were staged during the four-day event, and pulled in lots of local tourists this year.

The Lamu Cultural Festival is seen as an opportunity to experience Lamu island life at its best and to engage with the heart and soul of the local community.

The key highlight of the celebrations involves Lamu’s most endearing symbol – the donkey. The archipelago’s donkey jockeys spend all year honing their riding skills for a riding competition and winning the contest is a matter of great pride.

Unfortunately this tranquil and beautiful scenario of Lamu suddenly was affected shortly after the kidnapping and killing of one of the tourists in 2011. Since then, Lamu has never been the same.

Numerous subsequent terror attacks by Al-Shabaab in the following years between 2014 and 2018 pushed the security situation to the edge.

Despite all of this, people still flock to visit Lamu is to enter another world. Life slows down, and long days are spent strolling along the waterfront, exploring the town or relaxing on the beaches.