Popular African Festivals You Should Tick Off Your Bucket List

African traditional festivals are one of the reasons tourists keep trooping into the continent. The celebration of culture, through dance, art, and music is intriguing.

Thinking of what to add to your bucket list? Here are some of the most prominent festivals in Africa.

Zimbabwe: Harare International Festival of the Arts

Known as the “Glastonbury of African Festivals,” Zimbabwe’s Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) is an explosion of creative artistic work that showcases the resilience and strength of the Zimbabwean people.

The festival is considered one of the continent’s largest events and takes place each year in late April in Zimbabwe’s capital city, Harare, though the event did not occur in 2019.

Throughout the years (since its inception in 1999), the festival has attracted more than 1,000 musical performances and in 2018 alone, HIFA issued more than 30,000 tickets.

Morocco: Fez Festival of World Sacred Music

Enthusiasts admit that a trip to Africa is not complete unless one makes a visit to Morocco’s popular Fez Festival of World Sacred Music, a festival highlighting Balinese dance, Moroccan song, Italian Renaissance music, and African Sufism.

The festival, which boasts 4.5 out of 5 stars on Trip Advisor, is held under the patronage of the king of Morocco, King Mohammed VI, and combines the scholastic, artistic, and spiritual traditions of Fez, one of Morocco’s most mystical cities.

During the festival, art displays, food vendors, and more than 50 concerts scatter throughout the city every year during the last week of June. The festival draws crowds from groups all around the world, specifically Europe, Africa, the Americas, the Middle East, and Asia.

Free forums are offered to patrons who get the chance to mingle with legendary Moroccan scholars and artists both local and abroad.

Rwanda: Kwita Izina

Rwanda is home to half of the world’s mountain gorillas and every year in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali, a week-long tour of the country’s breathtaking landscape is conducted for hundreds of tourists.

One of the most popular parts of the trip is Kwita Izina, a gorilla baby naming ceremony, which celebrates the newborns while raising awareness about the importance of protecting the species from extinction.

Kwita Izina 2019 will begin the first week of September and also offers beer brewing, basket weaving, music, and food tasting experiences.

The tour is fast becoming one of the continent’s most praised cultural celebrations and draws in more tourists than the year before since its inception in 2005.

Ghana: Afrochella

When you think Afrochella, think Coachella but with an effervescent and melanated twist.

Featured in Essence and Travel Noire, Afrochella draws in thousands from all over the world for its precise depiction of Africa’s popular culture and art scene.

“The name was befitting only in its essence but not practically. Coachella is a music-focused festival,”

“While Afrochella highlights musical talent within Africa, the festival is built to highlight African creatives and business.” an Afrochella spokesperson said in a statement.

The week-long festival started in 2017 has already appealed to more than 5,000 attendees in its first year alone through a celebration of African art, food, language, and music.

Afrochella is held every year in Ghana’s capital city of Accra during the last week of December.

Tanzania: Sauti za Busara

BBC named Sauti za Busara as one of “Africa’s best-loved music festivals” because of its eclectic mesh of the continent’s top artists.

Forty of Africa’s young and emerging talents all convene in Tanzania’s capital, Zanzibar, for a three-night celebration of song and dance with acts traveling from Guinea, Nigeria, Algeria and South Africa to perform.

In addition, to live performances, training workshops are held throughout the grounds to promote networking and managerial skills for up and coming entertainment professionals.

The festival is typically held during the second week of February.

Nigeria: Calabar Carnival

It has been called Nigeria’s biggest street party. The carnival may have as many as 50,000 costumed participants and 2 million spectators and is broadcast on television across the country. It is the culmination of the month-long Calabar festival.

The Calabar Carnival has been held in Calabar since 2006, including band competitions, a parade, food, and dancing.

The Calabar Carnival holds at the end of the year in Nigeria, and in keeping with tradition, carnival teams march across the streets where they engage in colorful displays and competitions from which winners are selected and awarded.

Participating teams usually rehearse for months in advance before the carnival date itself.