Talking Drums Festival

The Talking Drums Festival is a major pan-African hip-hop and culture event, conceived to celebrate the profound influence of hip-hop on global music, art and society, and to reaffirm its African-diasporic roots. In its inaugural edition planned for 29–30 December 2025 in Accra, Ghana, the festival brings together over 40 artists from the U.S., U.K., Ghana and several African nations for a 48-hour nonstop cultural experience.

The mission of the Talking Drums Festival is to bridge Africa with its global diaspora through the power of hip-hop culture — its music, dance, fashion, storytelling and community. It seeks to highlight the genre’s legacy, impact and unity-building potential, while positioning Africa as a central hub for the creative economy and cultural exchange. 

Visually and conceptually, the festival envisions a global dialogue: artists and fans from across continents converging in one space to reflect on hip-hop’s journey from its roots to its global mainstream incarnation — and to reclaim Africa’s place in that narrative. The choice of Ghana signals a desire to anchor this vision in a continent increasingly recognised for its cultural capital. 

• The 2025 edition marks the festival’s first major activation, scheduled for late December in Accra, with a promising lineup and large-scale ambitions.

• The festival is developed in partnership with Ghana’s national branding initiative Black Star Experience (building on the “Beyond the Return” campaign) underscoring governmental and cultural support for large-scale creative events. 

• The concept frames the event as more than just concerts — it is a 48-hour immersive culture experience: music, dance, storytelling, fashion and gathering of diaspora and continent. 

For the African creative sector, the Talking Drums Festival represents a pivotal moment: hip‐hop has long been shaped by African rhythms, voices and identities, yet large-scale African festivals explicitly centred on hip-hop culture remain relatively rare. By establishing a high-profile event with global reach in Africa, the festival taps into both the continent’s youth demographic and the expanding global appetite for African cultural exports.

The upcoming edition is set to release the full artist lineup and detailed programming in due course. Fans can register via the official site for priority access and perks. With its debut anchored in Accra, the festival signals a blueprint for future editions, potentially rotating across African cities and deepening its diaspora engagement.