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The Annual Ife Festival of the Arts was started in the 1960s by Professor Michael Crowder, Director of the University's Institute of African Studies. By the time he left the University at the end of the 1970/71 academic session, the Ife Festival had become a regular feature of the international cultural calendar.
Professor Ulli Beier the renowned arts and culture connoiseur, assumed the position of Director of then University of Ife Institute of African Studies in September 1971. As Director, Ulli Beier transformed the annual Ife Festival by actively involving the Ife royalty and community in it. The then President of Senegal, Leopold Sedar Senghor, the Negritude poet and distinguished member of the Académie Française attended the Ife Festival in 1970 (which was the 3rd edition).
Unfortunately, as a result of the economic downturn of the 1980s, the Ife Festival suffered a setback and could not hold for about 20 years. |
