About the Festival

Every year, poets, musicians, and visual artists from across Sierra Leone come together in Freetown for three days of performances, workshops, and cultural exchange. The Inkundla Arts Festival has been running since 2024 — bringing emerging and established voices onto the same stage, creating space for collaboration, and building the kind of creative community that doesn’t happen by accident. It is the heartbeat of everything we do.

What the festival does

Spark Change – discussions on diversity, addiction, funding and inclusion turn applause into action plans.

Create Space – unites poetry, music, theatre and visual art under one adaptable roof, whether that’s a gallery stairwell or a car-park stage.

Connect Voices – hybrid tech and cross-border guests blend local stories with global echoes.

Equip Talent – Story Labs, Kreative Workshops and business clinics hand creatives the tools to publish, perform and profit.

First edition — 2024

The inaugural edition ran from 31 October to 2 November 2024 across venues including Aurora Foundation, Mango Peak, and Hotel Barmoi.

Day 1 opened with keynote talks from Aurora Foundation, Mango Peak, and DJ Granville, framing art as both livelihood and civic duty.

Day 2 went deeper — a panel on diversity in Sierra Leone’s creative sector, the launch of I (our SL–Zimbabwe poetry anthology), a hybrid open mic linking local voices to poets abroad, and a theatre piece on kush addiction by Wan Roof Theatre.

Day 3 moved from page to stage: the Rise & Riot Poetry Slam grand finale, followed by Soundz of Salone & Beyond, where Sierra Leonean musicians shared the bill with Irish singer Evin.

All events were pay-what-you-can.

Second edition — 2025: Mind Matters, Stories That Heal

The second edition ran from 31 October to 2 November 2025, themed Mind Matters – Stories That Heal. The festival explored mental health through lived experience and creativity, with facilitation guided by Safe Minds Haven Sierra Leone.

Day 1 began with a school-based Story Lab in partnership with EducAid Sierra Leone, followed by an Opening Night of poetry, music, and storytelling — co-hosted by S’phongo, Alice, and Isha — grounding the evening in gratitude, presence, and shared care.

Day 2 featured two facilitated conversations at Mango Peak: Wi Stodi Dem: Exploring Our Ancestral Stories fascilitated by Nzerengo Tere and Care On & Off Stage: Boundaries, Triggers, Rest, Recovery, facilitated by Mina Meetups. The day closed with the Rise & Riot Poetry Slam grand finale and a Jabulani Music after-party.

Day 3 was a family day. A Colour and Paint session invited children and caregivers into creative play, before the festival closed with a concert bringing together workshop artists, musicians, and collaborators from Freetown, Lunsar, Foredugu, and Kenema.

Five artists from Lunsar and Foredugu and one from Kenema were supported with transport and stipends to perform on the Freetown stage.

What’s next: 2026

The third edition is coming in October 2026 — bigger in reach, and opening the stage to artists from beyond Sierra Leone for the first time.

Want in? Artists, partners and volunteers — reach us at inkundla444@gmail.com.

Join us: donate, partner, volunteer or simply take your place in the crowd. Together we’ll keep turning individual stories into a collective roar that lights up Sierra Leone’s cultural future.