The coolest festivals in Africa

Last updated August 23rd, 2023.

This guide may contain affiliate links. At no cost to you, they allow me to provide these free and, even if I do say so myself, expert guides based on almost two years of travel in Africa. For a broader view, don’t miss my complete guide to travel in Africa.

Africa has an incredible array of cultural celebrations. They range from tribal gatherings to modern dance and music events. Experience a different side of the continent with what I think are the coolest festivals in Africa.

1. Lake of Stars, Malawi

If there’s a better name for a festival I haven’t found it. The Lake of Stars festival takes place on the Malawian shores of Lake Malawi. With a different location for each edition, it runs for three days filled with awesome music.

While based on the mass festivals of Europe and North America, it has just a tiny percentage of festival goers compared to Glastonbury or Coachella.

They total somewhere around 5,000 people each year, making a much more intimate experience. It’s much more like seeing your favourite musicians and bands on a regional tour than at Wembley Stadium.

When it comes to acts, Lake of Stars festival manages to attract acts from both Europe and Africa even with its relatively rudimentary stage. Previous performers include Foals and The Maccabees.

That’s thanks largely to its incredible reputation, matched with its unrivalled location. But it’s also because of the festivals harmonious ethos too.

The first Lake of Stars Festival was largely created through the hard work of experienced volunteers and free help from the British music industry. It now manages to pump somewhere in the region of $1 million into the region’s economy.

And in addition to the music, there’s the opportunity to learn a few traditional dance steps. Or even do a spot of volunteering with a local charity.

2. Saint-Louis Jazz Festival, Senegal

The largest jazz festival in Africa takes place around May of each year. It’s so popular an event it will soon be entering its fourth decade and known throughout the world.

The festival is centred around the Quai des Arts and Jardins de la Place Faidherbe at the heart of historic Saint-Louis. This UNESCO-listed island in the River Senegal forms a delightful backdrop to great music.

There are dozens of main performances to try and grab tickets for. There’s also a healthy fringe festival as jazz fans flood the city. Day tickets were priced at 8,000 CFA in 2021 (a bargain €12). A slight saving can be made if you instead buy a pass for the full three-day event.

There are also other activities right across Saint-Louis island. The festival is therefore a great time to visit even if you don’t consider yourself a jazz fan.

But if you are, you’ll delight in the fact previous editions of the festival have welcomed African artists including Ali Farka Touré. Other notable names among the 250 other performers each edition have included members of the John Coltrane Quartet.

3. Santi ze Busara, Zanzibar, Tanzania

Focussing on African music stars, Santi ze Busara takes place in February each year. Like the previous festivals on my list, it has a magical location on the spice island of Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania.

Meaning ‘Sounds of Wisdom’ in Swahili, the festival is staged within the walls of the Old Fort in Stone Town – another UNESCO World Heritage Site alongside Saint-Louis.

Other events take place right across the provincial capital, culminating in a carnival-like street parade through the ancient alleyways.

Lacking any specific genre, ticketholders can see everything from traditional music from the Sahel to homegrown hip hop. With several hundred performances making their presence felt each edition, there will also certainly be something to suit your own tastes.

The downside of Santi ze Busara’s worldwide recognition is its ticket costs. They start at $80 for international visitors, roughly half that for African passport holders, and just a tenth for Tanzanians.

4. FESTIMA, Burkina Faso

FESTIMA was established to help conserve cultural traditions in a rapidly changing world. It takes its FESTIMA acronym from the French for the International Festival for Masks and the Arts.

It is held once every two years, meaning the next is in 2024, and will take place between February and March. Its stage is the city of Dédougou in the little-visited nation of Burkina Faso.

Running for an entire week, its events are an unabashed celebration of West Africa’s different cultures, stretching from Senegal to Togo.

Founded in the country by a group of concerned students in 1996, the festival now attracts somewhere in the region of 100,000 visitors. All the same, only a handful of this number are ever international tourists.

They come to attend mask dances accompanied by hand drums that might otherwise be lost to the world. Other events include a marketplace for souvenirs, seminars (largely in French) and sessions specially-designed for children.

If the culture of West Africa intrigues you as it does me, FESTIMA is a great place to head.

5. Azgo, Mozambique

Azgo is another excellent music festival, this time in the Mozambican capital, Maputo.

The festival effortlessly blends the talents of well-known names in all manner of African musical genres with those just making it onto the scene. It also hosts a series of workshops, exhibitions, and even film screenings.

Azgo gets its name from the slang for ‘let’s go’, demonstrating the energy of the event. So while the ‘Culture is Fun’ tagline might sound a little twee to some ears, it really isn’t.

Taking place on the grounds of the Eduardo Mondland University, you can all but guarantee a youthful and eager crowd.

6. Bushfire, eSwatini (Swaziland)

An annual festival taking place at the end of May, Bushfire draws a huge crowd of music fans to eSwatini. In fact, tickets have sold out every year for eight years in a row, demonstrating just how popular the festival has become.

The mix of local and international festival goers come to participate in the antics of the main Firefly stage. Perhaps the closest African music festival to Glasbonbury, Bushfire attracts performers from across Africa as well as a host of other international acts.

Located on farmland in the Mdzimba Mountains, the festival also features a global food village, a market selling sustainably-sourced products, and a kids zone.

Even if you don’t know the likes of Ibeyi and Mozambique’s Ghorwane as yet, you’re sure to become a fan. That’s the power of Bushfire!

7. Gerewol, Niger

Also spelt Guérewol, this is one of north Africa’s most exquisite annual festivals.

A custom among Niger’s Wodaabe Fula people, it’s fundamental purpose is to create new marriages. Usually nomadic, the Wodaabe Fula come together at In-Gall, northwest Niger, in September. It’s part of the Cure Salée festivities.

Lasting about a week, the Gerewol incorporates camel races designed to show the strength of would-be husbands. Discussions over dowries run alongside. But it’s the males’ yaake chant-dance which is the most famous part of the event.

Young men dress up in their finest tribal clothing, and decorate their faces with white, black and ochre powders to emphasise their eyes and teeth. They then line up and begin a stationary dance, moving up on tip-toes while chanting.

Meanwhile, women of marriagable age walk along the line of men. A partnership forms when she first touches one of the men. Lasting several hours, the dance is also a demonstration of each man’s endurance.

8. Oasis: Into the Wild, Morocco

Just the second edition of Morocco’s Oasis: Into the Wild festival will take place in October.

This edition will take place in Ouarzazate on the edge of the Sahara Desert, in the film studios that brought us epic scenes in Game of Thrones, Gladiator and The Mummy.

Promising a long weekend of music, culture and food, a multitude of A-lister artists have been announced.

Among them will be Grammy award winning Honey Dijon, fresh from collaborating with Beyoncé.

While Into the Wild criss-crosses genres like a plate of spaghetti, what marries it all together are electronic beats.

So grab your glow sticks, you know where the party’s at come October.

The coolest festivals in Africa

There’s no shortage of fascinating festivals taking place in Africa each year, with my picks nothing more than the cream of the bunch. Many take place without much international fanfare, so keep your ear to the ground while you’re travelling and you might find something taking place. In previous years I’ve been invited to kola nut festivals in small Ghanaian villages and secret nightclub dances. But if I’ve missed any of the events you think are the coolest festivals in Africa, let me know in the comments and I’ll try and fix that!