Luena — The biggest music and dance festival of the eastern region of Angola, dubbed Ngeya, kicks off this Friday at the Sports Complex of the Peace Monument, in Luena city, eastern Moxico Province.

This year's event follows the experimental edition held in 2022, in Dundo City, north-eastern Lunda Norte Province. The project funded by the Catoca mining society brings together 126 artists from the provinces of Moxico, Lunda Sul and Lunda Norte.

The festival showcases the main traditional rhythms and folklore of the country's eastern region.

Despite not having a competitive nature, Ngeya, which is part of Catoca's "cultural itinerary" of social responsibility, will award one million kwanzas to each of the three participating groups per province.

The organisers justify the non-competitive character with the need to promote the cultural retrieval and intercultural dialogue, meeting of generations and construction of legacies for the promotion of multiculturalism in these three provinces of Angola.

Traditional dance is a popular cultural manifestation, during which the people of a certain region, in this case eastern Angola, express feelings and venerate their ancestry.

The festival, which takes place in a typical multicultural region, with the Cokwes and the Luvales being the most predominant, it is expected that the groups do their best to show visitors, scholars, curious people and the population all the power of the region's folklore, gastronomy, handicraft and cultural tourism.

Although the "Tchianda" is the the typical dance of the region, and probably the most internationalized one, with its singularity of being a dance and a music, the event will be a privileged stage to show other dances potential such as the Makopo, Mitingui, Maringa, besides the Kalofolofo, Kauali, Hulengo, Kandemba and Musheta.

The need to strengthen ethno-cultural Angolanity will certainly spark curiosity of the population to attend the event. LTY/YD/Amp/jmc