WA, Nov. 18, GNA - Participants at this year's National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFAC) on Friday gave glimpses of what spectators and audiences should expect when the festival officially opens on Saturday, with a spectacular display of various crafts and works of art in an exhibition organized at the festival village located at the Wa Secondary School.

The School has been temporarily closed down to make way for the festival, which ends on November 25.

Xylophones, textile and leather works, sculptor, ethnographic products, traditional medicine and food bazaar featured prominently at the exhibition mounted as a curtain raiser to the eight-day festival, which is under the theme: "Culture- a vehicle for wealth creation". The Region is for the first time hosting the festival, which is rotated biennially among the ten regions of the country. It ought to have been held last year but was rescheduled for this year due to reasons beyond the control of the planning authorities. Mr George Hikah Benson, Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, who opened the exhibition, said it was an opportunity for individuals and groups to expose their creative potentials and market their products. He urged the exhibitors to use the festival as a forum to interact and share ideas and experiences with their colleagues in order to develop products that would gain international acceptance. Mr Mark Dagbee, Upper West Regional Director of the Centre for National Culture said the xylophone, which is the traditional product of the Region would take centre stage at the festival and instructors were on hand to give lessons to those who want to learn how to play it. Some of the participants, accompanied by brass band music had earlier in the day went on a float through the principal streets of Wa. 18 Nov. 06