Mr Smith, the lead pilot who has been flying at the Kwahu Easter in the past years, in an interview indicated that he missed the festival and felt good about the celebration.

Paragliding

Seasoned pilots from around the world flew hundreds of revellers from the paragliding field.

Then, the local and foreign guests, some of whom flew into the country purposely for the festival, paid GH¢550 for the experience, which includes landing on the pitch of the Nkawkaw Sports Stadium.

“The paragliding exercise is done at the mercy of the wind.

The wind must blow towards a particular direction to influence the flight,” Kwame Owusu, a Ghanaian resident in the United States of America (USA) who is a certified Paragliding Pilot, told the Daily Graphic in an interview.

He explained that paragliding was an exciting aviation sport that could bring excitement to those who indulged in it and could also help open up the country’s tourism industry.

Asked whether it was a scary experience, he said: “I was also scared the first time but a few weeks later I went to the mountain and did it.

I know people are scared.

Yes, they have to be scared because we are not birds. But this is safe and I encourage everyone to get involved.”

He said he had completed 48 flights since he became a certified pilot.

Another pilot, Cherie Silvera, who also flew in from the USA, said the Kwahu Easter paragliding festival was unique because it was fused into an entire celebration involving many communities.

Ms Silvera, who has been paragliding for 26 years, said the beauty of the festival was in the people who gathered for it.

“I was here three years ago and I couldn’t wait to be back,” she said.

Revival

The Deputy Head of Corporate Affairs at GTA, Kofi Atta Kakra Kusi, said it had been the priority of successive governments to make the paragliding festival a major event on the national tourism calendar.

He said the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the GTA to break the paragliding festival because there was economic hardship and travel restrictions around the world.

He said the lifting of the restrictions had revived the enthusiasm of revellers in the festival, and that had also pushed the GTA to organise it.

He disclosed that after the paragliding festival’s revival in 2022 the patronage was enormous, such that in the first two days about 120 people had flown tandem flights with a pilot.

“It has been an exciting experience for revellers and all of us,” he said.

For the first time in the history of the festival, he said a locally trained pilot, Jonathan Quaye, who can carry passengers, had been certified to participate in the festival.