ACCES 2019 confirms Accra venues and final dates

The pan-African trade event will take place at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences and Alliance Française Accra on 28, 29 and 30 November. The academy will host the day activities, including panel discussions, workshops, training, presentations and networking sessions, among others, while Alliance Française, and another yet to be announced venue, will play host to the showcasing artists drawn from across the African continent.

The Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1959 by pan-Africanist and Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah. The academy's mission is to encourage the creation, acquisition, dissemination and utilisation of knowledge for national development through the promotion of learning. It is currently headed by Ghanaian law professor and member of the UN Independent Panel on Peace Operations Joy Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu.

ACCES, which moves to a different African city every year, is a multidimensional music conference for industry professionals to network, share knowledge and discover new talent.

The Accra leg will be ACCES' third edition after the event was held in Dakar, Senegal, in 2017 and Nairobi, Kenya, in 2018. Last year's ACCES saw some 1 000 delegates from more than 40 countries gather to exchange ideas and shape the continent's music sector. ACCES 2018 also saw the participation of 70 regional and international artists who showcased on two stages in front of industry movers and shakers as well as future collaborators.

This year, ACCES is planning a bigger programme of showcases in Accra and has already received nearly 350 applications from artists who would like to be considered for a slot at the conference.

Attendance at ACCES is free of charge for all Africans and registrations will open in June when the first batch of speakers is announced.

"This year's venues are ideal to hold a multifaceted music conference such as ACCES," MIAF director Eddie Hatitye said. "On the one hand we have the incredible Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences with its amazing history defined by the creation and transfer of knowledge, which ACCES is all about, and on the other, our amazing partner, Alliance Française, which has been pulling out all the stops, as in the case of ACCES 2018 in Nairobi, to help make our showcases truly memorable for our delegates and all music fans. We will be announcing one more venue in the next few weeks to give delegates a great experience of Ghana’s fantastic live music scene."

About ACCES 

ACCES is a pan-African trade event for music industry players to exchange ideas, discover new talent and create business linkages. ACCES is held in a different African city every year, attracting active music industry players from across the globe.

ACCES is organised by the Music In Africa Foundation, a non-profit and pan-African organisation, in partnership and with the support of Siemens Stiftung, Goethe-Institut, Reeperbahn Festival International, Alliance Française, BMG, Media Sound Hamburg, the Multimedia Group, Africa Art Lines, Afrikayna, the Gold Coast Hub,  the Year of Return, the Prince Claus Fund and the ANT Mobility Grant from Pro Helvetia Johannesburg, financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

This year ACCES has a partnership with Reeperbahn Festival – one of the most important meeting places for the music industry worldwide and Europe's largest club festival based in Hamburg, Germany. The partnership creates a framework for the festival to collaborate with ACCES in facilitating sustainable business engagements and exchange between European and African music businesses and professionals, as well as the provision of performance opportunities to musicians in both territories.

Follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our monthly newsletter.