Top 10 Festivals To Look Out For In 2016
Every year is filled with something to celebrate. These annual festivals give us that platform to showcase the talent and culture that are dear to our societies.
- UP LIVE 5
If you intend to be at a place this year where the sound of music keeps you alive, then UP LIVE IV will be the ultimate destination for your thoughts. The cold July weather shouldn’t get you down because you will be too active to even notice the chill. With exciting DJs and international artists like Sekou Kouyate, who was last years headliner, UP LIVE is today one of the most coveted festivals in the city. Don’t forget, it is also the time for UP to express itself creatively and get down and have a party with its fans AT THE RAILS!
Dates: July 2016 (dates to be announced later)
Venue: Railway Museum
For details check: www.upnairobi.com
Last year, they ran with the hashtag #wearetheones, to find out why creatives are the ones championing the creative revolution for societal change. Aside from their course, which is to promote artists, it is definitely a juicy festival that will keep you busy for three days. You will have an experience of music, food, fashion and poetry and great art installations all around you.
Dates: to be announced later
Venue: to be announced later
Just from it’s name, it definitely is the best festival to let loose and go wild, right on the shores of Lake Elementaita. Head down to the beautiful Soysambu Conservancy and join the Wilder clans for a 3-day weekend of bush camping to experience some of the best live musical performances from all over Africa. Enjoy fresh food, cocktail bars, a holistic healing area, art installations, fancy dressing and a host of inscrutable happenings all at one of the most tranquil locations in Africa.
Dates: 26th - 28th February
Venue: Soysambu Conservancy, Lake Elementaita, Kenya
We can say that South Africa is the mother of Africa’s festivals and Cape Town’s International Jazz Festival is its favourite son. Founded in 2000, it is not only the most popular festivals in South Africa, but also the longest-running.The festival has gained international notoriety in its 15 year run with major African, American, and European acts clamouring to grace one of the event’s five stages. It has hosted the greatest song-birds like Erykah Badu and Jill Scott, and this year will be phenomenal; Angie Stone, Meshell Ndegeocello and SWV are just some of the international acts that have confirmed. South African talent will also be a key feature at the festival - Mafikizolo, Khuli Chana and Dr Victor & The Rasta Rebels will be performing.
Dates: 1 - 2 April 2016
Venue: Cape Town International Convention Center
September is still far but it’s worth waiting for. This is because the Lake of Stars comes around this time and is listed one of the ‘greatest festivals in the world.” Held on the shores of Lake Malawi, it features live musical performances, film screenings, TED-style talks, art exhibits and lots more. There’s never a dull moment at this event; some performers have been known to do their sets from trees, while the Minister of Tourism even skydived into the festival. Past editions have included headliners The Noisettes, Oliver Mtukudzi, and FreshlyGround.
Dates: 30th September – 2nd October 2016
Venue: Lake Malawi
This is a festival worth taking you to the ‘Pearl of Africa’, on the 16th-18th of September this year. It is a series of multi-arts festival, that is organized to support the development of the local creative arts scene, promoting Ugandan arts and culture as a whole. For the three days, Kampala comes alive with as a vibrant and eventful city with an amalgamation of music, dance, theatre, film and visual artists from renowned and upcoming artists from all over the world.
Africa’s answer to Burning Man, the famous event held in the US, is more than a music festival: it’s a surreal world of art, music and performance in the Karoo desert. This isn’t your run of the mill festival, it is truly unconventional in its form. For one, Nothing is for sale but ice at the event. There are no vendors, no advertising or branding.
This year’s theme is X: the Roman numeral that signifies the number 10, and the letter X that represents an open signifier. It’s a time for both a backward reflection and an imagining of possibilities and futures.
Dates: 25 April to 1 May 2016
Venue: Tankwa Karoo, Northern Cape, South Africa
Also known as the Pan African Historical Theatre Festival, PANAFEST is held in Cape Coast, Ghana. It was conceived in the 1980’s as a means to examine and contemplate the effects of 500 years of the slave trade and its resulting diaspora. People of African descent can gather to speak frankly and seriously about the history and future of their lands and people. It is a celebration of African culture and freedom which can be described as part pilgrimage, part party, and fully heartfelt.
Some of the activities involved include a moving Midnight Candlelight Vigil at Cape Coast Castle, The Emancipation Day Commemoration as well as several dramatic and musical performances.
Whether your family was directly affected by the slave trade or not, you will be deeply moved by learning about the forced dislocation of so many Africans.
Dates: July 2016 (dates to be announced later)
Venue: Cape Coast, Ghana
The International Festival of Masks and the Arts (FESTIMA) is a week-long event that draws costumed troupes from villages around Burkina Faso, as well as from neighboring West African countries such as Benin, Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Togo, and Senegal. Each group is composed of musicians and elaborately masked dancers who know how to move to the beat. This year’s theme is ‘create the mask of the backup infrastructure’.
There are over 2500 expected masks all forms of expressions (films, fibers, bark, cloth, straw),42 shows of mask dances, 1300 practitioners of the mask and 300 exhibitors crafts.
FESTIMA started in 1996, when a group of Burkina Faso students decided they needed to take action to preserve this cultural linchpin that was slipping away in the face of modern influences. They formed The Association for the Protection of Masks (ASAMA) to produce the festival and revitalize the mask tradition. Over the years the event has grown from four days to seven days and the number of spectators has increased ten-fold.
Dates: 27th February - 5 March 2016
Bushfire is Swaziland’s internationally acclaimed music & arts festival that celebrates creative expression whilst promoting social responsibility, stimulating the economy and drawing talent and tourists from across Africa and around the world.Each year a multi-generational global community of more than 20,000 revellers ‘bring their fire’ to the scenic farmlands of the Malkerns Valley to experience the three day event renowned for eclectic and multi-dimensional programming rooted in world music including a compelling lineup of theatre, poetry, dance, art exhibits & installations, storytelling, puppetry, film, and themed workshops.
Dates: 27th - 29th May 2016
Venue: House of Fire, Ezulwini Valley, Swaziland
Hugh Ayara says:
Hope this finds you well.Kindly add my email to your invitation list.An art enthusiast and something big coming up and would love to work with you.Thanks
cynthia says:
like like like lol
keep up the wild n fashion.
Stella says:
How can I get more information about the wilder event?My friends and I would definitely love to attend such an event.
Loyce says:
Hi Stella,
Just go to the facebook page: wilder festival and send a request, then you will be added. It’s a closed group and thus you will need approval.
Thanks.
George Kiwanuka says:
You should also try out the Babishai Niwe Poetry Festival. it’s one of a kind where culture, art and poetry meet and also the Babishai Niwe Poetry Award is presented by African poet Beverley Nambozo Nsengivunya. 21st to 23rd August in Kampala Uganda.