The idea for Kartong Festival was conceived in 2005 during a visit to The Gambia by Peter Borshik to attend a sabar drumming workshop at Boboi Beach Lodge. During his stay, he discussed the idea of putting on some performances in Kartong with various local people and, when word got out, an amazing 300 artists expressed an interest in performing!
He joined forces with the Kartong Association for Responsible Tourism (KART), which had been established in order to safeguard the unique qualities that make Kartong so special, particularly with regard to the development of responsible tourism in the area.
The first event took place in November 2005 in the local St Martins School grounds, where it is still held today. Hundreds of artists from The Gambia and Senegal packed into a weekend of music and dance that continued into the early hours every night. The response to this weekend was fantastic and led to immediate plans to extend the festival to ten days in March 2006.
With the increase in size of the festival, an organising committee was formed and the Kartong Festival Association was registered as a charity in the Gambia in July 2006.
At the same time, African Linx was established in the UK to support and promote the Kartong Festival and to share and celebrate the best of our diverse cultures.
A day’s festival was organised in the village of Cropredy (Oxfordshire) in September 2006, where local musicians played alongside their African counterparts. This has continued annually to help raise funds for Kartong Festival and raise awareness.
In March 2007, in an exciting new collaboration between African Linx and Kartong Festival, two UK artists, Chris Park and Justine Hart, were enabled to work in Kartong with Moriba Kuyateh the kora player (African harp) and perform at the festival. The result was a spellbinding performance of traditional British folk tunes interwoven with music from the traditions of West Africa.
March 2008 saw the welcome return of Daby Balde, top Senegalese singer, who played at the first event in 2005. Another highlight was a remarkable performance by The Cotton Tree from Sierra Leone with a breathtaking show of acrobatics, magic and dance to a powerful musical accompaniment. That year, the UK Sabar drumming band Sankofa flew out and performed at the festival to the delight of local crowds.
During the week, the village was treated to its first ever open-air cinema show courtesy of Gam-Progressive Pictures who work with young Gambians to produce top quality topical films in local languages. This went down exceptionally well with the local audience.
The Festival also collaborated with Yiriwa FM, a community based local radio station in Brikama enabling several performances to be broadcast live with many interviews transmitted throughout the week.
Two further successful festivals were held in March 2009 and 2010 with the continuation of a fantastic line up of local acts, visiting artists and the exciting addition of wrestling and more workshops and craft activities.
In 2010, it was decided to bring the Festival dates forward to February starting from 2011, as this does not clash with the Christian calendar at St Martins.
The Kartong Festival Association Organising Committee is now taking on much more of the responsibility of running the festival themselves so that the Festival’s future can be more secure.