Thousands of spectators lined the streets of Porto-Novo, Benin's political capital, as the third annual Mask Festival filled the city with drumbeats, elaborate costumes and centuries-old ritual tradition. Over two days, performers embodying mythical figures — including the Egungun, Zangbéto and Guèlèdè — danced through the city in wooden masks and vivid costumes, celebrating the spiritual and cultural heritage of communities such as the Yoruba, Somba and Betammaribe peoples.

The festival draws on traditions in which masked figures are understood to represent ancestral spirits, carrying a role that is both cultural and deeply spiritual in local life. Professor Mahougnon Kakpo, speaking at the event, emphasized that masks transcend the purely decorative. "Masks are not just what we wear on our faces and take off. Masks represent a message," he said, explaining that both sacred and secular masks encode ideas passed down from ancestors. The decision to open the festival to international participants, he added, was a deliberate one: "When we speak of an international festival, it means that masks that are not only Beninese take part in the event."

For foreign visitors, the experience was striking. Martin Cruz, a visitor who had been in Benin for two weeks, described the spectacle as magnificent and said he was deeply impressed by how thoroughly the culture was embedded in the wider community. He said he planned to buy books to better understand the ceremonies and dances he had witnessed — a sentiment that reflects the festival's broader ambition of moving beyond spectacle toward genuine understanding.

Benin, a small West African nation bordered by Togo, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Niger, is widely regarded as one of the birthplaces of Vodun — a spiritual tradition that spread across the Atlantic during the slave trade era. Porto-Novo sits on the country's southern coast and has long been a centre of cultural life. Organisers see the Mask Festival as the cornerstone of a tourism strategy built on immersion and direct engagement with tradition bearers, rather than passive observation.

The festival's long-term success will hinge on a familiar challenge for cultural tourism: expanding reach and international visibility without diluting the authenticity that makes the event meaningful in the first place.