Baba Village 9 kicks off in Ouagadougou: roots and future

The Baba Village crowd at night, in Ouagadougou. © Baba Village International Festival — official photo (official website gallery).

The village moves back into town

Some festivals put up a stage; others move a whole world. Since 2018, Baba Village has done both: for a few days, a neighbourhood of Ouagadougou becomes a Burkinabè village again, with its storytelling, its cooking, its dances and its palaver. On Thursday, November 12, 2026, the 9th edition of the Baba Village International Festival got under way at the Terrain des Léopards in Saint-Camille, Dagnoën — and it will only hand the grounds back on Sunday, November 15, after four days of celebration.

Behind the festival stands an artist with two hats: Floby, a musician, is also a customary chief — the Noom Naaba. He is the promoter of Baba Village, and his idea has not changed since the first edition: bring the village back into the city, so that urban youth can touch with their own hands the way their parents and grandparents lived.

“Baba Village is a festival that starts from our roots and our values. The main message is to bring the village back into the city.”

The promoter's words, spoken as he presented this 9th edition, double as its programme. Everything else flows from them.

“Roots and Future”: a theme that says it all

The 2026 theme fits in two words that answer each other: “Roots and Future”. On one side, memory — traditions, know-how, values handed down. On the other, the youth who receives that heritage and carries it further. The whole edition is built on that dialogue: panels on passing on heritage and on the future of young people, workshops, storytelling, and stages where traditional music meets modern music.

The guests of honour of this 9th edition are the Peulh and Yarcé communities. A symbolic place is reserved for them at the heart of the village, and joking kinship — that Burkinabè alliance that turns differences into cousinhood and shared laughter — will be especially celebrated there. That, too, is Baba Village: a whole country telling its own story to itself, community after community, edition after edition.

Two stages, more than 70 artists and troupes

On the music side, the edition plays on two boards. The main stage hosts live and semi-live performances; the discovery stage — the off stage — opens the space to new talent, in numbers. In total, more than 70 artists and troupes are announced over the four days. Among the names unveiled by the organizing committee, chaired by Abdoul Aziz Tiemtoré: Floby himself, Dez Altino, Abibou Sawadogo, Amzy, Alzaz and the Ballet national, alongside many traditional troupes.

And around the stages, the village lives its own life: some fifty craft and food stands, training in culinary art, the children's village, courtesy visits to the Baba's palace. More than 50,000 visitors are expected over the four days — at neighbourhood scale, one small town hosting another.

On Sunday, the Noom Naaba closes his village

The official programme unrolls day by day: opening ceremony and traditional blessings, storytelling, traditional cooking, debates between generations, the dance of the masks. And on Sunday, November 15, the promoter himself will close his village: the closing concert of the 9th edition is given by Floby, the Noom Naaba, in front of his own audience.

Four days to remember where you come from — and to decide together where you are going. The festival's full page, its day-by-day programme and its official contacts are on the Baba Village International Festival page, and its founder's journey on Floby's artist page. Festival TV is following the edition from Ouagadougou: roots firmly planted, future wide open.

Moïse 1er, the Festival Explorer / Montréal - Québec - Toronto - Canada