Selling out your first African edition of the festival within hours of it going on sale should be a good thing. The fact that the Ghana-based festival was a). African debut outing for the brand, b). advertised almost exclusively on Instagram, and c). promising pristine beaches, beautiful sunshine, and a line-up that looked too good to be true, led some to believe that the whole thing was, well, too good to be true.
Day 1; Conversations with attendees throughout the weekend elicited a uniformly positive response. There was broad recognition of the important role this black-owned event was playing in bringing together the African diaspora and putting music from the continent on a platform the world could take notice of.
5O% majority of the crowd was from Ghana, with the bulk of the remainder traveling from France, Germany, the US, and West Africa and the diaspora at large to mark the Year of Return initiative and witness the event. Around 86% of attendees were female, and the roads leading to the festival site were peppered with impromptu fit shoots.
With just one main stage for performances and a smaller beach party space at the other end of the bay, the site felt compact but not cramped. It also meant that timing clashes were all but non-existent – a major plus for a line-up so stacked with stars, both established and rising.
Africa’s reigning reggae/ragga & dance-hall heavy -weight, Stonebwoy headline slot was marred by sound issues (he was barely audible for his opening salvo), but it almost didn’t matter as he had a few thousand people in front of him singing every word back. He sent the sun down on Friday, and barely paused for breath as he delivered an unrelenting hour of roots, lovers rock, and dance-hall, and afrobeats before closing out with a brace of sing-alongs.
The rendition of ‘Hero’ backed by the untamed BHiM Band during an energetic late evening slot, he caused a rush to the stage and confirmed the track as the festival’s unofficial anthem, and – with a set performed almost entirely by his backing track – highlighted the need for the rising stars to learn some stagecraft if they’re truly going to capitalise on their successes elsewhere.
Burna Boy’s headline slot was, had a few thousand people in front of him singing every word back. The crowd-sung choruses of ‘Location’, ‘On The Low’, and an encored ‘Ye’ hung in the Laboma air, while ‘Killin Dem’ sent sand flying as the African Giant led his devotees in a flurry of kicks and twists. He closed out Day 1 of the festival with a burst of fireworks, thousands of voices singing and the triumphant wave of a Nigerian flag there was only one question in the air.
With things on the ambitions list for subsequent nights, when the event (inevitably) scales up in size, these niggles are exactly what you might expect of a team putting on their first festival-scale do; and, perhaps more to the point: those in attendance seemed largely unfazed, such was the celebratory mood in the air.
The event continues on December 28th, with performances from Shatta Wale, Olamide, Teni, 6Lack, Runtown, Rema, Kwesi Arthur, La Meme Gang, Efya, with hosts in the form of Eddie Kadi and Shopydoo
