From August 12 to 14, 2019, the city of Gonaïves will host the 1st Edition of the International Voodoo Festival. This Festival is an initiative of the Association of Arts Promotion (APA) in response to the disinterest of the population of this ancestral cult. For Bekens Petit-Homme, the President of the Festival, it is time to change people's negative perception of the voodoo lifestyle as "one of the pillars of the nation's identity".

During the three days of this cultural and spiritual event, activities specific to voodoo are scheduled. Street parade, conference-debates, reflections workshop, guided tours in mystical and sacred places, exhibitions of voodoo artworks, voodoo gastronomy, mystical show (Rev, Kanpech, Choukbwa libète and Gayak)... Several personalities and national and international institutions working to promote voodoo are invited among others: Kate Rames, priest from New Orleans (USA), Kinoss Dossou, President of the Voodoo Arts Festival of Brussels (Belgium), Augustin St Clou, King of Vodou representatives of the Benin Voodoo Festival, the National Bureau of Ethnology (BNE) and the National Confederation of Haitian Vodouisers (Konfederasyon nasyonal vodouyizan ayisyen / KNVA).

IH/ iciHaiti