Alternative music platforms and circuits to take centre stage at ACCES 2019

The panel will feature creatives and representatives from alternative music platforms in Africa, who will share their professional insight into how festivals, media outlets, creative hubs and Afrocentric spaces operate and foster opportunities for artists to connect, collaborate and create.

The panel will be moderated by Kenyan trumpeter, musician and founder of Women in Music Forum Christine Kamau. The panellists are Nyege Nyege Festival co-founder Derek Debru (Uganda), Afrikayna founder and chairperson Ghita Khaldi (Morocco) and TRUE Africa founder and journalist Claude Grunitzky (UK).

The ACCES music conference will take place at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences and Alliance Française Accra on 28, 29 and 30 November. 

Registrations for the pan-African trade event are open and African delegates register for free.

Nyege Nyege Festival

Nyege Nyege Festival was founded in 2015 by Arlen Disizilan and Derek Debru. The Festival aims to showcase all the exciting developments in the experimental and electronic music scene in East Africa. Nyege Nyege is also an artist management agency and an art collective, which explores, produces and releases underground music from the East African region. Through its community studios and two record labels, Nyege Nyege Tapes and Hakuna Kulala, the label has showcased emerging artists such as Disco Vumbi and electro-Acholi pioneer Otim Alpha, DJs Catu Diosis and Kampire.

Women In Music Forum

Women In Music Forum is an initiative that curates the Women In Music concert series in partnership with Goethe-Institut Nairobi. The platform seeks to promote young women in performing arts by providing an avenue to showcase their stage performance skills via regular live concerts at the Goethe-Institut auditorium.

Afrikayna

Afrikayna is a Moroccan association that works on intercultural exchange, development and cooperation in Africa. Founded in 2013, the association places at the centre of its vision the African component of Moroccan identity and directs a series of activities for the promotion of arts and culture on the continent. Afrikayna is also the bearer of the Africa Art Lines project, the first Moroccan artistic mobility fund in Africa.

TRUE Africa

TRUE Africa is a media platform championing young African voices by publishing content on culture, music, sports, lifestyle, politics, fashion and tech in Africa and the diaspora. TRUE Africa is also a content marketing agency and is often involved in organising international cultural exhibitions and events.

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, Afrikayna, Reeperbahn Festival, Alliance Française, BMG, Africa Art Lines, Afrikayna, Media Sound Hamburg, the Gold Coast Hub, 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.

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