August 28, 2025 • 13 mins
It’s the summer festival season, and while Europe and North America are seeing declining sales and smaller tours - Africa’s festival scene is on an upward trend.
Eswatini’s Bushfire Festival, and Tanzania’s Sauti Za Busara are growing, bringing jobs, tourism and support for Africa’s music industry.
On this week’s episode, Tiwa Adebayo speaks to Maputo based correspondent Tavares Cebola, who’s been reporting on the summer festival season. They discuss whether the African music industry is able to capitalise on its global popularity and how the region's growing younger middle class are fueling the festival industry.
Jennifer Zabasajja will return next week.
For more stories from the region, subscribe to the Next Africa newsletter here
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
It's the summer festival season, and while Europe is seeing
declining sales and smaller tours, could Africa's music industry be
ready to take its place well?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Especially at Jay one of the Bushfire Hunting on the Crown.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
The stage is beautiful. Spertini's Bushfire Festival and Tanzania's Sauti
Zabasara are growing, bringing jobs, tourism and support for Africa's
music industry Italian difference. On today's episode of The Next
(00:46):
Africa Podcast, we'll look at Africa's growing festival circuits, how
African countries are doing things differently, and what this tells
us about the region's young population and growing middle class.
I'm Tia Adibayo in for Jennifer's Abasaga and this is
the Next Africa Podcast, bringing you one story each week
(01:07):
from the continent driving the future of global growth with
the context only Bloomberg can provide. Joining me this week
is Maputo based correspondent Tavari Sabola, who spent the summer
on the festival circuit in the pursuit of news. Tavaris,
thanks for joining me, so it's been quite the summer
(01:28):
of festivals so far, Can you put the African scene
into context for us? What are the big festivals, the
major ones that you have to be.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
At across the continent. You have seen in recent years
this emergence of music festivals, and compared to what is
happening in Europe or in Northern America, what do you
see artists Not only they are growing in terms of audiences,
having more people come into these festivals, but they are
(01:59):
putting together concepts that are slightly different in some ways
to what is happening in other parts of the worlds combining,
for instance, tourists, combining in nature or other activities that
people can do in a festival settings. So you have
in Southern Africa you have Bushfire, considered one of the
(02:19):
biggest festivals in the continent. You have Saudisabusara in Tanzania,
in Sanzobar, which has been growing recently. You have many
festivals in South Africa. You have festivals in Kenya and
in Nigeria. So I would say in the past ten
to fifteen years, there's this trend of festivals growing.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah, and so tell us a bit more about your
experiences at these festivals. I'm really interested in the set list,
you know, the artists that are performing. Did you find
that it's mostly global stars or are there a good
mix of African artists in there too, what's the atmosphere like?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Well, in there for festival that I attended, you you
have obviously mostly African artists attending. They always have one
or two global artists of blue global musicians, but most
of the lineup like local artists from the specific countries,
but also coming from the continent and most importantly with
(03:21):
the genres that are right now dominating the region and
dominating the global stage.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, that's something I wanted to get into because it
feels like you can't go anywhere without hearing afrobeats these
days or Amma piano or another style of African music
is incredibly popular in the context of the global music scene.
What is that popularity doing for African economies?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Well, yes, as you said, so, we have seen since
the two thousands intents this phenomena where African music people
call it the umbrella of afrobets, but that just the
umbrella like very different genres in from Southern Africa to
East Africa to West Africa. Right now, you have obviously
(04:07):
stars like Daddy do or Tayler from South Africa or
terms people are conquered, that they have conquered global stages
that are performing in the biggest festivals in the world.
You have this at this layer, this tier artists that
already made it, making millions with the great record deals
(04:31):
and doing advertising for companies. And you have, i would say,
on the secondary tier of festivals and small venues making
money off this popularity of genres coming from the continent.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Let's take it back to Espaccini. Now, the bush Fire
Festival that you've been mentioning. I know you're lucky enough
to attend, but it seems to be more than just
a festival. They've actually had backing from the UN. And
that comes at a time when we we've actually seen
a report from the UN about the importance of cultural
festivals in Africa. Why is this such an area of growth,
(05:08):
Why is it such a useful instrument for organizations like
the UN to use to pursue their aims.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Bushfire, for instance, they combine different aspects not only the music,
but you have social aspects that are important for especially
for the youth, and obviously the tourist aspects of it.
Since Bushfire two decades ago started. They've been consistently growing
with more stages, employing more people, creating more jobs and
(05:36):
having an array of other industries coming together, for instance,
the food industry. In this year's festivals, you had chefs
and people working in the food instrites coming from South Africa,
coming from Botswana, from les to sell their foods and
have small kitchens at the festival. So the reason why
precisely a lot because the festival is not only about music.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Stay with us, Tavaris. When we come back, we'll talk
more about the impact of these festivals and what they
tell us about Africa's growing young middle class. Will be
right back. Welcome back today on the podcast, we're talking
about Africa's growing music festival circuit. Tavarish Sabola is still
(06:20):
with me. Let's talk about some of the economics of
these festivals. Do they bring a boost to the areas
that are hosting.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Them, Yeah, definitely. You see a lot of people. I
am based in Maputu and a lot of people travel
from Maputu to Zanzibar because of tourism, but also they
end up going to the festival. So a new African
population is mostly young you have this emerging middle class
people that are able to pay for a flight, pay
(06:48):
for holidays, and they're crossing borders. They're traveling, and I
think for push Fire Festival, perhaps half of the festival
goers that are coming from South Africa, and you have
like twenty percent of the first of all goals are
coming from from Mozambique. And these that young people that
now have money and have access to resources to be
(07:10):
able to travel, that are buying cars that can drive
across the border.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
So I mean, those are the positives, huge opportunities for
growth and productivity gains. But tell me, are there any
negative sides to this? You know, typically when we see
high volume of travel between areas, there is the chance
of rising inflation. Has that been something that's affected the
populations that live in these places full time?
Speaker 1 (07:37):
In z's Abart for instance, there I spoke to some
people that are complaining about rising costs because a lot
of tourists are coming to these places and rent scores up,
and so there are definitely these problems that come from
migration and tourists coming to these places, and in the
(07:57):
music itself, despite the growth in the popularity of this
genres and the fact that they're having to festival to
more people performing, more people coming from within the countries
that this festival is happening, but also in the region,
you have this problem of how can they actually monetize
their popularity of these genres because obviously you have the
(08:19):
Davidos and the Terms and these global stars they made it,
but you have people that don't necessarily have the same
access to Spotify. They don't generate a lot of money
through streaming platforms. And Music in Africa, which is this
platform that works in Southern Africa and music and they
(08:39):
put out a report two years ago about the economics
of artists in music, and they observed that thirty percent
of all the revenues for artists coming from live musical
live performances, basically highlighting the fact that the festivals and
venues are an important source of income. But they say
only ninety percent of their past revenues are coming from
(09:03):
streaming services. So you need in the way the algorithms
for streaming platforms like Spotify or others Title or Apple Music,
the way they're designed make it difficult for musicians coming
from the continent where the Internet penetration is not as
high as it would be in places like London or
(09:25):
New York, so it's difficult for them to monetize, and
that most of the managers and people that I spoke
with in the firstival circuit, they say musicians have to
professionalize their services and start putting their music on this
live streaming streaming services, but also investment deal infrastructures to
(09:48):
allow them to be able to monetize online.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah, So I mean at the moment, would you say
that Africa as a continent isn't really profiting to the
maximum capacity from the popularity of its music and its artists.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Well, you have a small group of artists, as we
mentioned the superstars making money of it, but the vast
majority are not necessarily making a living off their music,
even if the music itself is immensely popular.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
We've been talking about how in Europe and North America
the music industry isn't in the strongest situation. Is this
an opportunity for African festivals and African music to fill
that gap or do they risk following the same path.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
You have potential for growth and to align festivals in
the continent with tourism, growing tourism industry. I think it's
there's a potential there, especially the idea of novelty and
all of this, all of these countries for in combining
music with nature activities and designing festivals in a way
(11:01):
that will be different from how things that's done in
places like Europe or Northern America. So I think there's
a definitely there's a potential, but we again we face
the underlying problems where which are like infrastructure to the
air transport across the continent is very expensive, and the
economy is themselves. The governments have to do better in
(11:26):
making sure that the infrastructure is there to be able
for the festivals to grow. Because definitely there's a there's
a potential, not only because of the novelty, but also
because these festivals again are combining in different things.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Ours. Just lastly, summer twenty twenty five is coming to
a close, but could you give us some advice for
next summer. What is the number one African music festival
that we need to attend next year?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
In November this year, there's this festival is called the
Nyaga Yaga. It happens in in Uganda. It's started as
a small festival. It's extremely popular these days, they're gonna
The next one is happening in November this year, but
definitely the two that we have been talking about that
I will definitely recommend the Bushfire Festival in Sauti Savasari
(12:15):
in Zanzibarazania, Tavares.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Thank you so much for joining us and you can
read all our coverage across Bloomberg platforms. Now here's some
of the other stories we've been following across the region
this week. Nigerian companies are increasingly opting to issue short
term debt rather than longer term notes to avoid locking
in high borrowing costs. Nigeria's Central Bank has lifted its
(12:40):
key interest rate by sixteen percentage points to twenty seven
point five percent in the past three years to contain
double digit inflation that's been stoked by depreciating nira and
Rwanda says it plans to work with a carbon project
development company to work towards selling the offsets to Singapore.
Singo produces about forty nine million tons of carbon dioxide
(13:04):
or its equivalent every year, making it the world's fifty
seventh biggest emitter. By buying credits from Wanda, the Asian
country could meet its goal to mitigate the impact of
its omissions. You can follow all these stories across Bloomberg,
including the next African Newsletter. We'll put a link in
the show notes. This program was produced by Adrian Bradley.
(13:28):
Don't forget to follow and review this show wherever you
usually get your podcasts. I'm tia Adebayo. Jennifer will be
back next week. Thank you for listening.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
It's the summer festival season, and while Europe is seeing
declining sales and smaller tours, could Africa's music industry be
ready to take its place well?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Especially at Jay one of the Bushfire Hunting on the Crown.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
The stage is beautiful. Spertini's Bushfire Festival and Tanzania's Sauti
Zabasara are growing, bringing jobs, tourism and support for Africa's
music industry Italian difference. On today's episode of The Next
(00:46):
Africa Podcast, we'll look at Africa's growing festival circuits, how
African countries are doing things differently, and what this tells
us about the region's young population and growing middle class.
I'm Tia Adibayo in for Jennifer's Abasaga and this is
the Next Africa Podcast, bringing you one story each week
(01:07):
from the continent driving the future of global growth with
the context only Bloomberg can provide. Joining me this week
is Maputo based correspondent Tavari Sabola, who spent the summer
on the festival circuit in the pursuit of news. Tavaris,
thanks for joining me, so it's been quite the summer
(01:28):
of festivals so far, Can you put the African scene
into context for us? What are the big festivals, the
major ones that you have to be.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
At across the continent. You have seen in recent years
this emergence of music festivals, and compared to what is
happening in Europe or in Northern America, what do you
see artists Not only they are growing in terms of audiences,
having more people come into these festivals, but they are
(01:59):
putting together concepts that are slightly different in some ways
to what is happening in other parts of the worlds combining,
for instance, tourists, combining in nature or other activities that
people can do in a festival settings. So you have
in Southern Africa you have Bushfire, considered one of the
(02:19):
biggest festivals in the continent. You have Saudisabusara in Tanzania,
in Sanzobar, which has been growing recently. You have many
festivals in South Africa. You have festivals in Kenya and
in Nigeria. So I would say in the past ten
to fifteen years, there's this trend of festivals growing.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah, and so tell us a bit more about your
experiences at these festivals. I'm really interested in the set list,
you know, the artists that are performing. Did you find
that it's mostly global stars or are there a good
mix of African artists in there too, what's the atmosphere like?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Well, in there for festival that I attended, you you
have obviously mostly African artists attending. They always have one
or two global artists of blue global musicians, but most
of the lineup like local artists from the specific countries,
but also coming from the continent and most importantly with
(03:21):
the genres that are right now dominating the region and
dominating the global stage.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, that's something I wanted to get into because it
feels like you can't go anywhere without hearing afrobeats these
days or Amma piano or another style of African music
is incredibly popular in the context of the global music scene.
What is that popularity doing for African economies?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Well, yes, as you said, so, we have seen since
the two thousands intents this phenomena where African music people
call it the umbrella of afrobets, but that just the
umbrella like very different genres in from Southern Africa to
East Africa to West Africa. Right now, you have obviously
(04:07):
stars like Daddy do or Tayler from South Africa or
terms people are conquered, that they have conquered global stages
that are performing in the biggest festivals in the world.
You have this at this layer, this tier artists that
already made it, making millions with the great record deals
(04:31):
and doing advertising for companies. And you have, i would say,
on the secondary tier of festivals and small venues making
money off this popularity of genres coming from the continent.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Let's take it back to Espaccini. Now, the bush Fire
Festival that you've been mentioning. I know you're lucky enough
to attend, but it seems to be more than just
a festival. They've actually had backing from the UN. And
that comes at a time when we we've actually seen
a report from the UN about the importance of cultural
festivals in Africa. Why is this such an area of growth,
(05:08):
Why is it such a useful instrument for organizations like
the UN to use to pursue their aims.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Bushfire, for instance, they combine different aspects not only the music,
but you have social aspects that are important for especially
for the youth, and obviously the tourist aspects of it.
Since Bushfire two decades ago started. They've been consistently growing
with more stages, employing more people, creating more jobs and
(05:36):
having an array of other industries coming together, for instance,
the food industry. In this year's festivals, you had chefs
and people working in the food instrites coming from South Africa,
coming from Botswana, from les to sell their foods and
have small kitchens at the festival. So the reason why
precisely a lot because the festival is not only about music.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Stay with us, Tavaris. When we come back, we'll talk
more about the impact of these festivals and what they
tell us about Africa's growing young middle class. Will be
right back. Welcome back today on the podcast, we're talking
about Africa's growing music festival circuit. Tavarish Sabola is still
(06:20):
with me. Let's talk about some of the economics of
these festivals. Do they bring a boost to the areas
that are hosting.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Them, Yeah, definitely. You see a lot of people. I
am based in Maputu and a lot of people travel
from Maputu to Zanzibar because of tourism, but also they
end up going to the festival. So a new African
population is mostly young you have this emerging middle class
people that are able to pay for a flight, pay
(06:48):
for holidays, and they're crossing borders. They're traveling, and I
think for push Fire Festival, perhaps half of the festival
goers that are coming from South Africa, and you have
like twenty percent of the first of all goals are
coming from from Mozambique. And these that young people that
now have money and have access to resources to be
(07:10):
able to travel, that are buying cars that can drive
across the border.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
So I mean, those are the positives, huge opportunities for
growth and productivity gains. But tell me, are there any
negative sides to this? You know, typically when we see
high volume of travel between areas, there is the chance
of rising inflation. Has that been something that's affected the
populations that live in these places full time?
Speaker 1 (07:37):
In z's Abart for instance, there I spoke to some
people that are complaining about rising costs because a lot
of tourists are coming to these places and rent scores up,
and so there are definitely these problems that come from
migration and tourists coming to these places, and in the
(07:57):
music itself, despite the growth in the popularity of this
genres and the fact that they're having to festival to
more people performing, more people coming from within the countries
that this festival is happening, but also in the region,
you have this problem of how can they actually monetize
their popularity of these genres because obviously you have the
(08:19):
Davidos and the Terms and these global stars they made it,
but you have people that don't necessarily have the same
access to Spotify. They don't generate a lot of money
through streaming platforms. And Music in Africa, which is this
platform that works in Southern Africa and music and they
(08:39):
put out a report two years ago about the economics
of artists in music, and they observed that thirty percent
of all the revenues for artists coming from live musical
live performances, basically highlighting the fact that the festivals and
venues are an important source of income. But they say
only ninety percent of their past revenues are coming from
(09:03):
streaming services. So you need in the way the algorithms
for streaming platforms like Spotify or others Title or Apple Music,
the way they're designed make it difficult for musicians coming
from the continent where the Internet penetration is not as
high as it would be in places like London or
(09:25):
New York, so it's difficult for them to monetize, and
that most of the managers and people that I spoke
with in the firstival circuit, they say musicians have to
professionalize their services and start putting their music on this
live streaming streaming services, but also investment deal infrastructures to
(09:48):
allow them to be able to monetize online.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah, So I mean at the moment, would you say
that Africa as a continent isn't really profiting to the
maximum capacity from the popularity of its music and its artists.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Well, you have a small group of artists, as we
mentioned the superstars making money of it, but the vast
majority are not necessarily making a living off their music,
even if the music itself is immensely popular.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
We've been talking about how in Europe and North America
the music industry isn't in the strongest situation. Is this
an opportunity for African festivals and African music to fill
that gap or do they risk following the same path.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
You have potential for growth and to align festivals in
the continent with tourism, growing tourism industry. I think it's
there's a potential there, especially the idea of novelty and
all of this, all of these countries for in combining
music with nature activities and designing festivals in a way
(11:01):
that will be different from how things that's done in
places like Europe or Northern America. So I think there's
a definitely there's a potential, but we again we face
the underlying problems where which are like infrastructure to the
air transport across the continent is very expensive, and the
economy is themselves. The governments have to do better in
(11:26):
making sure that the infrastructure is there to be able
for the festivals to grow. Because definitely there's a there's
a potential, not only because of the novelty, but also
because these festivals again are combining in different things.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Ours. Just lastly, summer twenty twenty five is coming to
a close, but could you give us some advice for
next summer. What is the number one African music festival
that we need to attend next year?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
In November this year, there's this festival is called the
Nyaga Yaga. It happens in in Uganda. It's started as
a small festival. It's extremely popular these days, they're gonna
The next one is happening in November this year, but
definitely the two that we have been talking about that
I will definitely recommend the Bushfire Festival in Sauti Savasari
(12:15):
in Zanzibarazania, Tavares.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Thank you so much for joining us and you can
read all our coverage across Bloomberg platforms. Now here's some
of the other stories we've been following across the region
this week. Nigerian companies are increasingly opting to issue short
term debt rather than longer term notes to avoid locking
in high borrowing costs. Nigeria's Central Bank has lifted its
(12:40):
key interest rate by sixteen percentage points to twenty seven
point five percent in the past three years to contain
double digit inflation that's been stoked by depreciating nira and
Rwanda says it plans to work with a carbon project
development company to work towards selling the offsets to Singapore.
Singo produces about forty nine million tons of carbon dioxide
(13:04):
or its equivalent every year, making it the world's fifty
seventh biggest emitter. By buying credits from Wanda, the Asian
country could meet its goal to mitigate the impact of
its omissions. You can follow all these stories across Bloomberg,
including the next African Newsletter. We'll put a link in
the show notes. This program was produced by Adrian Bradley.
(13:28):
Don't forget to follow and review this show wherever you
usually get your podcasts. I'm tia Adebayo. Jennifer will be
back next week. Thank you for listening.
Host
Jennifer Zabasajja
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