Nyege Nyege 2024: The Nyege Nyege Music and Arts Festival 2024, is set to return on November 14th -17th at the Source of the Nile by Jinja.
The new dates have been formally announced on Friday at the Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo staged by the Uganda Tourism Board in Uganda’s capital Kampala.
Nyege Nyege is Uganda’s biggest tourism event. It is expected to provide a $10 million boost to the country’s economy and create over 2,000 jobs directly through the festival and a further 2,000 jobs through the springing up of businesses to help facilitate visitors.
Centered on celebrating Pan-African diversity under the theme ‘Afrogalactic Carnival,’ Nyege Nyege Festival will aim to combine future-forward music with ancestral traditions, highlighting Uganda’s natural beauty and rich tapestry of cultures.
The festival will also once again showcase the diversity of Ugandan traditional music with traditional acts coming from all over the country. Uganda is known worldwide for being a host to refugee communities from across the East African region, and this year Nyege Nyege will showcase the many talents in exile in Uganda, including Sudanese, Congolese, Eritrean, Burundian, and Ethiopian artists.
It will too feature a series of cultural pavilions and stages that showcase music, fashion, food, and culture from different parts of East Africa and the Continent, echoing Uganda’s global reputation as one of the world’s most hospitable countries. Festival organizer
Speaking to Derek Debru, one of this year’s event organisers, he has revealed how his delighted about the event returning for a ninth year and encouraged to book tickets early while they remain on sale at a discounted price.
“Nyege Nyege aims to reflect Uganda’s hospitality and cultural diversity, advocating for peace and an insatiable thirst for a good time, which is the exact definition of Nyege Nyege in Uganda,” he said. Representation at the event will include curated showcases from Sudan, South Africa, Ivory Coast, DRC, India, and Brazil, as well as all East African countries and special partnerships with cultural organizations representing all parts of Uganda.
The 2024 event will feature a special showcase from Sudanese artists-in-exile curated in partnership with Kampala-based Sudanese artists. Thanks to their government’s support, Brazil and the UK will also be heavily featured in this year’s program. In 2023 the festival was a success in production and in providing a safe environment for its revelers.
This year, Nyege Nyege will again be working with all security stakeholders to ensure it is a resounding success. Long-term sponsor Uganda Breweries will host three distinct experiences at the event, in addition to a new Hakuna Kulala stage that will deliver a 96-hour music and performance marathon and comprising both live acts, DJs, and dance and theatre performances.
Nyege Nyege’s long-term partner Talent Africa is known for being Uganda’s number one event production company and in 2024 the Festival will be staged at a brand new site: twelve acres at the Source of the Nile in Jinja, Njeru. It is the opposite of last year’s location which saw more than 20,000 people from across Uganda, Africa, and the globe gather for the four-day event to hear some of Africa’s most exciting acts.
The new site features a brand new aquapark, ample parking, and camping infrastructures, and is naturally secured, making it the perfect home for Nyege Nyege to stage this year’s event. The organizers have partnered with neighboring lands to establish and run this year’s campsite, which will be directly connected to the festival site.
Nyege Nyege will also have a special partnership with Kingfisher Resort, which will offer accommodation minutes away from the site. This year Nyege Nyege is furthermore partnering with Platinum Tours and Travels to create a series of tourism packages that will enable festival-goers the chance to discover the Pearl of Africa before and after the festival.