AFRICARIRI LANDS OTTAWA: CAPITAL TO THE CLAIMS!
Eleven years of this, and laughter does not weaken! On Saturday, October 17 at 8:30 p.m., the Afrikiri Festival is closing its 11th edition in the heart of Ottawa — and note the change: the closing show has moved to Maison de la Francophonie, 2720 Richmond Road. The federal capital is about to vibrate the rhythm of French-speaking African humour!
You must imagine the scene: after Montreal, Quebec City, Rimouski, Trois-Rivières and Sherbrooke, the caravan of laughter sets its suitcases for a final evening. On the stage, five of the seven artists of this 11th edition: the Ivorian Willy Dumbo, Cameroonian Ulrich Takam, Prissy la Dégammeuse, figure of the women's stand-up in Côte d'Ivoire, Bappa Oumar and Dolino. A skewer that, from town to city, made the halls of Quebec resonate before this finale in the capital.
Because Afrikiri is not just a series of punchlines. Since 2015, the festival organized by the organization Afrique Multirielle has been giving the microphone to African and Afrodescending voices — international stars like the new generation of people here. It is a laugh at the realities of immigration, clichés, small traumas of the daily life dedramatized with self-detrition. In Montreal, at the beginning of October, Meriem told her lives as a woman, mother and humorist of Algerian origin, and the room recognized itself in every anecdote. That's what Afrikiri signed: behind every burst of laugh, a shared experience of life.
Saturday, after the 90-110-minute show, the party continues with the after-party closing — to close these eleven years of laughter as it should: together. Regular ticket $45, after-party package $55, VIP $65, all via the ticket office of the festival. Ottawa, in turn, laugh!
— Moïse 1er, the Festival Explorer