Winneba Masquerade Festival : The First Party Of The Year In Ghana

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If you want to start your New Year with colour, celebration, and pure energy, there is only one place to be on 1st January, Winneba . While everybody is still sleeping after 31st Night, Winneba is already awake. Drums, brass band, costumes, masks. This is the Winneba Masquerade Festival, locally called Fancy Dress. It is the first major festival in Ghana every year. And it is the second biggest festival in Winneba after Aboakyer. There is a morning in Winneba that does not feel like any other morning in Ghana. By 7am, you can hear it. The brass band far away. The drum, shouting and the crowd. If you are in Winneba on that day, you cannot stay in your room. The sound will drag you out. I remember the first time I followed the sound. I thought something had happened. I thought maybe there was a funeral. But when I reached the road, I saw something I had never seen before. Men wearing masks. Big, colourful, scary, beautiful masks. Some looked like animals. Some looked like old white men ...

Rock & roll legend Phil Collins just made a major confession: he’s a HUGE Tailor Swift fan

The Genesis icon went on BBC Radio 2 this month and had nothing but love for Taylor Swift.

"She's the hugest thing in the world now... and she deserves it," Collins said. "It's easy to knock someone with that much success, but I think she really deserves it. She's a good girl."

 



Collins says his Swiftie era started in 2010 when his daughter Lily introduced him. After watching Taylor perform _White Horse_ at the Songwriters Hall of Fame, he was hooked.

 "She got up on stage with a guitar and sang 'White Horse,'" he said.

 Even 'Gracie Abrams' is calling Taylor her "forever fan" inspiration, crediting her for showing how to create with freedom and ignore the noise.

 Proof that good music transcends genres — from Phil Collins to Gracie Abrams, we’re all in our Taylor era.