Coca-Cola congratulates the Festival committee on the success of the 2024 National Mask & Warwagira Festival

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) would like to congratulate the Festival committee for the successful staging of the Coca-Cola 27^th National Mask & Warwagira Festival.

Held in Rabaul from the 10^th – 13^th July, this is the second year of support by Coca-Cola as the “naming rights” sponsor.

CCEP’s Regional Sales Manager for the New Guinea Islands, Jack Kekep said that the partnership is a great avenue that allows Papua New Guineans to connect different tribes and communities and preserve the vibrant cultures.

“As a global organisation, Coca-Cola is all too familiar with accepting and promoting diversity in our business and we see the importance of supporting cultural events like this Festival.”

Tiolam Wawaga from the festival’s organising committee said that the partnership has enabled the province to come together to celebrate the Tolai culture in a meaningful way.

“We are very fortunate that a global brand like Coca-Cola has come on board to help us showcase the unique mask cultures of East New Britain, which featured cultural dancing, ritual performances, storytelling, arts, and crafts.”

The apex of the festival saw 61 Tubuans captivating the crowd with their exotic performance which is the highest recorded compared to 15 last year. The show attracted 45 cultural groups with an estimate of 5000 spectators who showed up with renewed enthusiasm all throughout the 3-day event and didn’t leave disappointed.

Coca-Cola have been inter-twined in the fabric and culture of Papua New Guinea since 1904. CCEP continues to sponsor other notable provincial shows such as the Enga and Goroka shows in the Highlands region and the Morobe Agriculture culture show.