Nigeria
offers variety of festivals with sound and rich cultural heritage. The
evidences of these festivals are found in all the geo-political zones in
the country which serves as veritable instruments of national
integration, peaceful co-existence and cultural possibilities.
A number of cultural activities exist in Nigeria, which create unique
creative spaces for producers of the arts as well as conducive
interactive spaces for tourists and connoisseurs. Many of these cultural
activities have been in practice from time and have given the country
an acclaim as being culturally super-active. The cultural activities in
Cross River State are particularly outstanding from those in many other
states of the federation as they showcase diverse creative packages. The
state is renowned for its festivals of songs, dances and masquerades at
coronation, marriage, burial, naming, planting and harvesting
ceremonies. Cross River State is also popular for its hospitality and
its culinary productivity – many Nigerians would want to have a taste of
‘Calabar’ food. Tourists also like to visit the numerous cultural and
historical sites in Cross River State. While these ceremonies, tourism
potentialities and locations have ever been present with the people of
Cross River State in Nigeria, not much was done to formalize and
organize their presentation to diverse international audiences until the
year 1999. The administration of Donald Duke at the inception of
Nigeria’s 4th democratic era evolved a dynamic policy to develop the
tourism sub-sector as an area of alternative revenue for the state. Part
of the plan was to develop a rich tourism calendar to accommodate more
(existing) cultural events and in some cases rebrand and repackage them
for better appeal. The plan was also to accommodate new events that
would appeal to the emerging consumerist culture of the 21st century.
So, in all parts of the state there are cultural festivals and artistic
practices that appeal to diverse audiences. There is mountain tourism
and recreation in the mountainous region of Obudu; there are new yam
festivals in the agricultural belt; maiden outing ceremonies, water
sports and other art-related events in many communities of the state.
2.1 THE CONCEPT OF COSTUME Costume is part of
actors’ apparatus. It refers to all clothing an individual performing
wears in a show, festival or movie. In a broader sense, costume can be
applied in many kinds of performance or media like drama and dance. The
orchestra players wearing white shirt and black suit to perform in the
concert hall, they are also wearing ‘costumes Theatre, television and
movie are the medium often showing costume. Indeed, costume is not
garment merely. Jeffrey Kurland (2004), the governor of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences, claims that “costume dominate the foreground action
throughout a film, shaping the characters and thus helping to move the
story forward with what one could describe as the visual narratives".
This explanation fulfills the basic definition of costume. Everything
wears by the actor will count on costume? This is another issue, to
distinguish the accessories belongs to props or wardrobe is quite
confused. Nevertheless, costume designer is often much more tend to
practical-oriented. The main purpose of wearing costume is to shape and
to enhance the character. Costume is not meant to cloth. Unlikely to
fashion, costume is not need expensive to show how glamorous or fabulous
of the people who wear it. Costume is needed to have such glamorous
feeling on screen but it could cost not much. This explains the apparent
difference among both of them. Fashion works on our three-dimensional
world but costume is not; film Costume visualizes the actor and helps
them to create their character. There are three key qualities in
designing the film costume. Color shows the mood and taste; texture
shows the economic status; and style shows personality and occupation.
Audience get signal from the costume by the shape and color that can be
revealed as welcomed or feared. A good costume is able to show the
mentality ofthe character