It was colourful, with lots of music, and high energy dance as hundreds of youths and the elderly trooped to the La Campagne Tropicana Forest, Hills and Caves in Ita-Nla, Ondo town, Ondo State to participate and witness the first day of the 2026 Asun Carnival Ondo.
Young and old revellers in colourful and well designed costumes lined up the hills resort, from top of the hill, downward to express themselves in dance, music and energetic celebration. The echoes of the fun and music revibrated round the ancient kingdom drawing curious onlookers.
The carnival on the hills, forest and caves resort is the first in the line up of activities for the 2026 Asun Carnival.

Speaking during the hills’ carnival, the members representing Ondo West in the Ondo State House of Assembly and also the Parliamentary Secretary of the House, Otunba Moyinolorun Ogunwumiju said the state will continue to support such efforts to develop tourism in the state, adding that the state government is making progress in putting in place structures that would help tourism development and growth. His words: “We are here again for 2026 Asun Carnival. It has been wonderful: the dancers, colourful environment, and of course, the best organised Asun Carnival so far. You can never see anything like Asun Carnival anywhere on the face of the earth.
“I feel that this year has come again and the organizers have put on a bigger, better organized show. It is the only carnival on the hilltop. You know, you can see the whole of the city from here, and you can see the dancers have performed wonderfully. This is just the continuation of many great things that are being done for Ondo kingdom. And I pray that we shall be here next year again to celebrate a wonderful carnival.

“We know that he (Otunba Wanle Akinboboye) has done so much here by making sure that this carnival is colourful, super nice and very well attended. And I’m sure that next year too, it’s going to be awesome.”
On Ondo State’s plan for tourism, he said: “Last year we talked about the potential of Ondo State for tourism. And I believe that the state has done a couple of things in terms of ensuring that there’s better access for people who want to invest in tourist destinations in Ondo State. We have provided a couple of incentives based on the our EASE agenda of the Ondo State Governor. The Ondo State Governor, Lucky Ayedatiwa, has has an agenda called our EASE and a major part of that agenda is to encourage people to invest in tourist destinations and to also give them the incentives to come to invest in us. That has been rolled out. This is just the governor’s one year into office. And I know that next year, by the time we’re coming here next year, we’ll have been able to see major improvements in the tourism in Ondo State.”
The three-day festival continues today with events like the Asun delicacy preparation competition, Kolokun goat chase, and other activities at the the Adeyemi Federal University of Education, Ondo.