The Youth Edutainment Theatre Festival (YET Festival), inspired to bridge the gap in youth engagement, is scheduled to hold its maiden edition on Monday, 25 May 2026, at the Wesley Primary School Complex, Lagos, from 9 am. It will commemorate this year’s International Children’s Day.
In a statement by the initiator, Eki Faith Eboigbe, YET Festival will celebrate and honour its Platinum Icon, Chief Ibidun Allison (the Amebo in a popular Village Headmaster drama series, which ran from the late 1960s to the 1980s) and its Gold Icon (Actress Gloria Young), in recognition of their commitment and dedication to the arts and service to humanity.
According to the organiser, by constructing a creative platform that stimulates and generates dialogue to accelerate sustainable development in Africa and ignites awareness to promote and develop self-valued individuals, the festival would inspire the exhibition of exemplary courage and moral fortitude, and create a cultural platform for dialogue, creativity, networking and entrepreneurship.
Eboigbe said that the workshop segment would provide hands-on training in barbing, hair braiding, shoe making, coaster making, fascinator making, tie-dye, bag making, beading, and painting for business startups and special children at the Wesley School for the Hearing Impaired, as well as underserved young people in the community.
‘Our vision in this regard is to help build confidence and enhance a better, brighter future, while promoting networking between participants and audience in the area of cultural education’ she said.
During the summit segment, selected youths will speak on the impact of education, which involves empowering young people as active agents, mentors and innovators who transform education through technology, peer-group learning, and advocate for sustainable development.
The segment is also expected to elevate young people with the education, skills and resources required to thrive, while the impact-to-entertain focus shapes behaviour, talent and social perspectives, which act as both a tool for engagement and a potential source of negative influence.
Similarly, talented young people will perform carefully selected and entertaining plays with an educational thematic posit to live audience.
‘Our young people are the future of the world. They represent the future of families, communities, countries and the world as a whole. More often than not, people are what they are as a result of their formative years’, Eboigbe further said.
She said that the YET Festival would ignite theatre for education platform to engage young people in the community, using art and culture to express, share and gain new knowledge, while harnessing their innate creativity, towards contributing positively to the progress and advancement of their immediate environment and humanity in general.
The theme of the maiden edition is “Youth Impact: Educate, Elevate and Entertain”.
The festival is a key corporate social responsibility initiated by Entertainment Bus Stop Limited, in collaboration with the National Council for Arts and Culture, Lagos and supported by First Bank Plc.
