Historic of Donia festival

Nosy-Be is an island in Northwest of the large island of Madagascar in Indian Ocean.

It is a small island of three hundred square kilometer. Nosy-Be has around 45,000 inhabitants.
Its population is very diverse.In 1994, some friendstourism and economicOperators of Nosy-Be made a crazy challenge. They organized a music festival in this Island. None of them had special knowledge or experience in the organization of a festival. He created the COFESTIN (committee of Nosy-Be Festival Organization). They organized the first festival of Nosy-Be called DONIA, that means life, good life in sakalava language north of Madagascar.

     As Nosy-Be is town of atmosphere that why the called this festival: Donia. It is a music festival and this festival gets together all artists from Madagascar and Ocean Indian. The sportifs events andCultural are also organized during the day around the festival, including a small opening carnival.Donia Festival is the biggest and the most famous festival of Madagascar and  Indian Ocean, with 50,OOO spectators over 5 days. It takes place one a year in the month of mey. Since Wednesday until Sunday of Pentecost. This year the people of Nosy-Be celebrate the 22th edition of Donia Festival.

     Donia Festival always begins by a big carnival on wednesday in afternoon which cross the town of Hell City. In this  carnival  a lot of  associations  participate  and they give their maximum to  the

spectators because  the  best of them win the price which contribute at the closing of festival by the responsible of Donia. In the day of carnival, almost of school doesn’t have class because it became a day off for the people of Nosy-Be.

In the night of Wednesday  there is also a big ball. This opening ball is above all for the authority of Nosy-be and also for the people of Nosy-be. Since Thursday until Sunday afternoon the spirits competition and cultural events are also organized. In sportifs events there are different sports like foot- ball,basket-ball, motorbike race, boat race, etc. …    For cultural events there are Moraingy (Malagasy fight between two persons), wadra (traditional dance),Vako-drazana(traditional song and dance), Kidramadrama (fight of person against the beef). There is also the game for children to which the children participate like song competition, dance competition.