AFROVIBES FESTIVAL / XL

From October 3rd to 5th, the 21st edition of the Afrovibes Festival will take place at the Maaspodium, featuring theater, dance, performance, and fashion from and about Africa. The central theme Africa is not a country emphasizes the diversity and complexity of the African continent, recognizing the unique characteristics of each region. This year, the focus is on North Africa.

The North African region is often seen as part of the Arab world rather than the African continent. This raises questions about identity and connectedness, fitting within the festival's 2024 theme: Belonging.

A ticket grants you daily access to both performances and the side programming. On all days of the Afrovibes Festival, there will be food available, and after the performances, there will be an artistic talk. The evenings will conclude with an afterparty featuring a DJ. Multi-day combitickets are also available for purchase!

“When I see a picture or representation of the African continent, such as on jewellery or in/on artistic works, the depiction is usually of a single continent. The North is not cut off. There is no line drawn between North and what is otherwise considered “real” Africa. That would be ridiculous.  Yet in political, academic and other analyses of Africa, the North is somehow removed from the continent, and this is not considered ridiculous.  Why would it be, when the North is typically considered fundamentally “different” from the rest of the continent and, it is said, more appropriately grouped with the Middle East?”

Nuunja Khaina in This is Africa

The 21st edition of the Afrovibes Festival is from 2 to 13 October 2024 in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht with performances from Morocco, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Egypt and the Netherlands, among others.

Afrovibes Festival presents innovative and cutting-edge work by contemporary African artists. They are artists who, from an African perspective, give artistic shape to current questions and themes that also concern us. From their distinctive vision, they tell stories about who we are, what we would like to be and how we are interconnected. With their work, they respond to their environment. Be it issues of social justice, political tensions, the threat of climate change or developments on the African continent. They break through existing notions about theatre, dance and music from Africa. This year, the festival showcases the versatility of makers and artists from North Africa and the (North) African diaspora in the Netherlands.

The theme of Afrovibes Festival 2024 is Belonging. A sense of belonging is like a basic human need, the need for a stable home, shelter, community and belonging somewhere. The sense of belonging gives us a basis to live together, work together and contribute to the world.

With the high instability in the world, it seems as if the conditions for a stable and secure life are slipping away from us. Climate change, polarisation and the fragility of the world evoke feelings of insecurity. Migration, through war as well as the colonial past in Africa, makes people move and drift, sharpening the desire to belong somewhere.

Based on the theme of Belonging, Afrovibes is shaping this year's festival programme with performances that have a focus on North Africa and the (North) African diaspora in the Netherlands. It is a region where the theme of belonging is very topical. North African countries are often seen as 'non-African' but as belonging to the Arab world. How can we see this from an African perspective? Through work by artists from North Africa and from the North African diaspora in the Netherlands? Do they feel connected to the African continent and an African identity or to an Arab identity?

Each in their own way, this year's artists and their work explore how and with whom we feel connected. They delve into cultural and political debates about identity, diaspora and decolonisation. They explore our desire to belong somewhere, to have a home. Together, they provide an artistic answer to the question of how artists in North Africa and in North African communities in the Netherlands experience their identity and their cultural heritage. The selected performances each show their own perspective on this theme through theatre, music and dance, and connect with the audience and with questions current in society.