Festivals Programme

The West African Arts cluster are working to develop festival management skills across West Africa to enhance the capacity of the festival sector to contribute to overall cultural and creative economy growth. 

We have delivered 3 phases of training to 40 independent and public festival managers from Ghana, Gambia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. 

We also have a festival fund to support reciprocal programming of young, emerging artists between UK and West African festivals, professional development of artists and festival management teams, exchange visits between UK and West Africa and other collaborative activities between festivals in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and the UK .

The next round of applications will open in December 2018 for festivals in April 2019 onwards.

Following the call for festivals in UK and West Africa, we are supporting 14 festivals in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and UK with funding for reciprocal programming of young, emerging artists between UK and West African festivals. These festivals will take place between July 2018 and April 2019. The selected festivals are;