Festival Afrobeat International
Afrobeat · African music · Terrain Miramar de Tampouy, district 3, Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)
The festival
The Festival Afrobeat International is Ouagadougou's flagship Afrobeat gathering. Founded in 2012 in the wake of Fela Kuti, the genre's creator, it is carried by the Réseau Art Émergence — a network of cultural entrepreneurs, arts administrators, cultural journalists and artists founded in January 2011 — and organised with the agency Challenge Communication.
Its founder and director, Jean Marie Nabi, known as Zopito, has built it, edition after edition, into one of the barometers of contemporary African music in Burkina Faso. The festival was named Best Festival in Burkina Faso at the Faso Music Awards (FAMA) in 2021 and 2022, and Best Festival at the 12 PCA in 2020. Its home ground: the Terrain Miramar de Tampouy, in Ouagadougou's district 3. Every edition unfolds concerts, an artistic parade, a festival village and a children's space there.
The 13th edition, in April 2025, themed “En Mouvement”, opened with a great parade through the streets of Tampouy and a ceremony attended by three Burkinabè ministers. The 14th edition, “Level Up!”, held from May 29 to 31, 2026, added a training programme called “Éclosion” — cultural administration and communication, general stage management — led by experts from Senegal, Burkina Faso and Mali, among them Mory Touré.
The festival also works as a development lever for its neighbourhood and its city: improving the living environment of district 3 residents, rehabilitating and equipping a preschool centre, health consultations and screening for vulnerable groups, a pilot water and sanitation programme in five Ouagadougou primary schools, sexual and reproductive health awareness, and cultural entrepreneurship training for young project leaders.
The 15th edition runs from Friday, April 23 to Sunday, April 25, 2027 in Ouagadougou, under the theme “Connect: talents, cultures, markets”. On the bill: concerts, a residency, entrepreneurship, master classes, networking, the Afrobeat village and a social programme — with the stated ambition of bringing artists closer to opportunities, creations closer to presenters, and cultural entrepreneurs closer to markets.
Good to know
Listing based on the official announcement of the 15th edition (poster and text from the organisation, received on October 28, 2026) and the festival's official publications, checked on October 28, 2026. The visual is the official poster of the 15th edition.