Felabration to showcase Nigerian culture and Fela’s legacy, Yeni Kuti says

Felabration will be held from October 12 to 18, with a series of events beginning earlier in the month, Yeni Kuti, co-manager of the New Afrika Shrine, has said. She described the annual festival as a platform for promoting Nigerian culture and celebrating the life and legacy of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Kuti spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos ahead of the 2026 edition.

According to her, the programme will open with an art competition on October 1 at the Kalakuta Museum. A dance competition is scheduled for October 3 at the New Afrika Shrine, while school debates will take place on October 7. The programme will also include the ‘Dress Fela’ fashion show on October 10, before the main festival begins.

Kuti said the event had continued to draw tourists, particularly people of African descent from the diaspora, to the New Afrika Shrine. She described the international attendance as a positive development for the festival and for the promotion of Nigeria’s cultural identity. “It’s a very positive thing because if you come to the Shrine, you see people from all over the world,” Kuti said, according to NAN.

She added that she was pleased the festival was helping to promote Nigerian culture. Felabration was conceived by Yeni Anikulapo-Kuti in 1998, NAN reported. It has since developed into an annual programme combining music, debates, dance, art and fashion in tribute to Fela’s life and legacy.

The 2026 schedule places the festival’s central events alongside activities intended to involve artists, students and fashion participants. Kuti’s comments indicate that the organisers view the presence of overseas visitors as an avenue for presenting Nigerian culture to a wider international audience.