We Started In A Car Park
Eleven years, four festivals a year and 46 people on a festival weekend. Here is who we are and what we hold to.
Who puts these on
We Have Been Doing This Since 2015
Bloom started as one night on a car park in Osu with a borrowed rig and 400 people. Eleven years later we run four festivals a year, employ 46 people on a festival weekend and still book every bill ourselves rather than buying one in.
What has not changed is the part nobody sees: we pay artists on the night, we publish our site plans before we sell a ticket, and we clear the field before we go home.
Years putting on shows
Tickets through the gate in 2025
Artists booked since 2015
Crew on a festival weekend
What we hold to
Four Things We Will Not Trade
Every one of these has cost us money at least once, and every one of them is why the crew and the artists come back.
01
Artists are paid on the night
Every act, every festival, before they leave the site. Not thirty days, not on receipt of an invoice, not when the sponsor settles. It is the single reason good acts take our call in a market where they have been burned.
02
The site plan is public before tickets go on sale
Capacity, stage positions, water points, medical tents, exits and the transport plan. If we cannot show you where nine thousand people are going to stand, we should not be selling nine thousand tickets.
03
Traders pay a flat pitch fee, never a percentage
Forty food traders at a festival, all local, all keeping what they take. A percentage deal makes the promoter a partner in every plate sold and puts the price up for the person eating it.
04
The field is cleared before we go home
Every site we use is somebody's beach, park or street on the Monday. We budget the clean-up before the line-up, and we have never once left it to the Assembly.
What we do
Everything Between The Idea And The Encore
Six things, and we do all six in-house. A promoter who subcontracts the stage does not control the show.
Festival production
The whole thing, from the first site visit to the last skip leaving the field.
Artist booking
We book the bill ourselves — 214 artists since 2015, and we pay on the night.
Stage, sound & light
Our own rig, rigged for the back of the field rather than the front row.
Ticketing & entry
Mobile money first, because that is how Ghana actually pays for things.
Brand partnerships
Six sponsors a festival, never sixteen. A field of banners sells nothing.
Safety & licensing
The permits, the medics, the stewards and the plan for when it rains.
The crew
Forty-Six People On A Festival Weekend
Six of them all year round. These are the ones whose names go on the licence.
Kwabena Asare
Founder & festival director
Put on the first one in an Osu car park in 2015 with a borrowed rig. Still walks every site the morning of, and still books the closing set himself.
Adjoa Mensimah
Head of programming
Builds every bill. Spends nine months a year listening to demos and the other three arguing with agents, and has never once let us open with the wrong act.
Naa Dedei Lamptey
Production manager
Runs the build and the break. If a truck is late, Naa already knows and has already moved three other things to cover it.
Yaw Ofori-Atta
Technical director
Designs the PA and the lighting for every festival. Responsible for the rule that the coverage is set from the back fence forwards, which is the best thing about our sound.
Esi Bonsu
Partnerships lead
Looks after the six sponsors and turns down the other thirty. Has talked more brands out of a banner and into something people actually enjoy than anyone in Accra.
Kofi Anaman
Safety & licensing
Holds every permit and writes every crowd plan. Twenty-two years in event safety and the only person here allowed to stop a show.
The office is above a print shop in Airport Res
Six of us are here all year; the other forty arrive in the fortnight before a festival and leave on the Monday. You are welcome to come up — ring first, because half the time everybody is on a site.
14 Nortei Ababio Loop, Airport Residential Area, Accra
Get in touch
Asked often
While You Are Here
How do I get on the bill?
Send a link — not a file — to hello@bloom.live any time. Adjoa listens to everything that arrives before the end of March, and we put four new acts a year on the small stage at Highlife Garden.
Is the site accessible?
Yes at all four festivals: level or matted routes, an accessible viewing platform at every main stage, accessible toilets near it, and a free ticket for a personal assistant. Mail hello@bloom.live and we will call you before the day.
Do I need cash on site?
The bars and the merchandise stand are cashless. The food village takes both, because the traders asked us to keep cash and we listened.
Be The First To Know About Upcoming Festivals
One mail a month at most: on-sale dates, line-up announcements and the pre-sale code, twenty-four hours before everybody else gets it.
you@example.com
