FESTAC Africa Festival 2025: Where Culture Meets Commerce in Ghana

Ghana has been confirmed as the host for FESTAC Africa Festival 2025, scheduled for September 21–27, 2025. Organisers say the week long programme will combine music and the arts with trade and commercial programming in a deliberate effort to position culture as an economic driver, not just a cultural showcase.

The lineup, as announced by festival organisers and local cultural authorities, will include headline concerts, fashion showcases, film screenings, exhibitions of contemporary African art, and a business track that brings together creative industry startups, rights holders, and investors. Planned side events include a youth entrepreneurship summit, intellectual-property and creative-finance workshops, and buyer-seller sessions aimed at connecting designers, producers and streaming/distribution partners.

Officials are pitching FESTAC as more than a festival. It’s framed as a marketplace. The organising team is courting international buyers and platforms, and has been working with Ghana’s tourism and trade bodies to create routes for export from runway orders and film coproduction deals to licensing opportunities for designers and musicians. The festival’s stated aim is to move artists out of one-off shows and into lasting commercial relationships: deals, distribution, and scalable business models.