Festima

The green leaves of the mask rippled in waves to the sound of the drum beat as the dancer’s feet flew, pausing only momentarily to strike the ground. Kicking up clouds of dust he made his way across the field, sometimes floating, sometimes bouncing but always embodying the pure rhythm of the eight drum players playing nearby. This is my first night at the mask festival in Deadougou and I’m blown away.

Hearing the words ‘mask festival’ I’m excepting to see someone wearing a mask parading around for everyone to see. I wasn’t expecting this – mask troupes from eight countries, hundreds of dancers, a wide variety of drums and whistles and of course a staggering variety of intricate masks and consumes.

The dance floor is a dirt patch about the size of a soccer field which is surrounded by people. The event offers three types of seating. For about $.25 you can stand in the sun and watch, $.50 buys you a seat under a shaded hanger while a dollar buys you a seat in the shaded, makeshift risers. We had decided that since this was a once in a lifetime kind of thing we’d splurge and get a weekend pass for the stadium seating.

What started out as a small group of people talking about going had surprisingly grown into a group of about twenty from all across the country. We were all staying together in two very crowded bunk house style rooms – two rooms each with sixteen beds, four windows and nothing else. The spoilt volunteers, such as myself, who were accustomed to a blasting fan all night long complained about the heat while the truly “HardCorps” volunteers had no problem.

The heat of the midday sun was an equalizer, drawing complaints from everyone. But mostly we watched. The masks costumes were made from everything from leaves and straw to reeds and leather. There were dancers on stilts, dancers doing back flips, dancers spinning for minutes straight. It was an awesome experience.

Taking pictures was supposedly forbidden without first buying a photo pass. We all chipped in and got one, giving it to the person with the best camera, Leslie. You can check out the pictures she took here.