Ghana to host 6th FESTAC 2025

The week-long festival of Black and Africans, which is slated for September 21 to 27, is expected to attract at least 100,000 patrons, featuring various activities, including daily performances where about 500 artists will be on stage at about 10 venues.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of FESTAC Africa Renaissance, Grace Mumo, who announced this at a press conference in Accra yesterday, also unveiled about 10 activities that would underline the festival, a global event, which has been held only five times since 1966, with the sixth set to be in Ghana.

She said the festival, which was first held in Dakar, Senegal, in 1966, then in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1977, in Zanzibar, Tanzania, in 2022, in Arusha, Tanzania in 2023, and Kisumu, Kenya in 2024, would feature cultural performances, exhibitions, conferences, movie and health screening.

The 2025 FESTAC is on the theme: “Re-imagining the African Renaissance”.

The dates have been chosen to align with symbolic and intentional milestones.

While September 21 marks the birthday of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s founder President and one of the most influential Pan-Africanists in history, September 27 is celebrated globally as World Tourism Day.

To start with, there will be a cross-border road carnival of about 1,000 participants from Nigeria through Benin and Togo to Ghana, about 500 musical and cultural performances, a durbar of chiefs at palaces across the country and visits to historical sites.

Activities

Ms Mumo added that there would be three days of transformational conferences, including a women empowerment summit and a technology and innovation summit, six days of exhibitions of local and foreign small and medium enterprises, as well as two days of sports and children sports camps and funfair.

She said the festival would also feature food and fashion shows, climaxing with a Ghana-Naija jollof showdown, while over 50 movies will be screened.

This year’s theme is a clarion call for action, which boldly asserts that Africa’s future must be rooted in collective well-being, cultural identity, economic self-reliance, environmental stewardship and inclusive growth.

The CEO of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Maame Efua Houadjeto, stated that FESTAC Africa 2025 would present a bold and forward-looking platform for collaboration, transformation and visibility in which creativity met commerce, tradition met innovation and identity met opportunity.

Mrs Houadjeto explained that FESTAC Africa 2025 would serve as a cultural and economic catalyst, advancing the country’s tourism agenda and showcasing Ghana’s leadership as the cultural heartbeat of the continent.

The Chairman of FESTAC Africa, Yinka Abioye, explained that the world’s biggest Pan-African festival of arts and culture depicted a Pan-African movement of cultural reclamation that would honour ancestral wisdom, foster economic empowerment, and exude African pride.

The Public Relations and Communications Specialist at W.E.B. Du Bois Museum Foundation, Terry Mingle, who chaired the media launch, stated: “As we celebrate this festival of renewal and reawakening, let us remember that the African Renaissance is not a distant dream.”

He said the Museum Foundation was set up to carry forward the legacy of Dr W. E. B. Du Bois, a man who believed that the past was not a burden, but a bridge.

The Corporate Affairs Director of GTA, Bright Asempa, gave an assurance that GTA was committed to ensuring that the festival would be impactful, exciting, responsible and inclusive.