It is an overall satisfaction to the extent that the objectives are globally achieved. This is an edition that wanted to touche especially youth and children because, as you know, Africa is a young continent and for young people, more and more and our concern was to better present the MASA to the younger generation. That’s why unlike other editions we did not do just one day dedicated to children but three. The other thing that allowed us to communicate to the children is the scenic readings that we organized with slam sessions dedicated to children where besides we did not refuse other categories of public because we are speaking about » young audience « . In the morning it was the stage readings and the slam with the professionals guests who were performing and, in the afternoons, they went to the schools to introduce the children to this form of popular poetry, but you know the poetry when it is good it is good.
We are also satisfied with the control of the MASA IN , the showcases, the speed meetings went very well. But where there have been many misunderstandings and where we will try to make corrections, is the participation of the public in certain musical shows. In reality, we have chosen not to invite the stars since MASA’s primary vocation is not to invite a lot of big stars (in terms of our budget, we could not afford it either) but to promote emerging talented artists and the latter seeking popularity do not systematically drain the world. But there have been some who have played their game well at the Palace of Culture like the 10 Volts of Benin and others who have enjoyed a large audience. At the closing party, too, with the Zouglou groups, there were people.
Obviously, there are many things to correct because as it is said, « it is the one who has worn the shoe who knows how much it squeezes ». So after each edition we meet on several levels to try andsee how to get better control of the event because I must tell you that the MASA is a little victim of its attractiveness. There are a lot of people that want to be part of the event but they are coming out just at the last moment so there was a bit of tension in the programming but we welcome it. Professionals and journalists massively responded to the call even if this time they had to pay at least their ticket. But despite this without counting the Ivorian journalists, there were 102 international journalists. I think the result is overall satisfactory.