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ABOUT

We put Ghanaian musicians in front of Ghanaian audiences

Rhythm is a live-music and events company in Adabraka, Accra. We book, produce and run shows all year — and every December we build our own.

A packed arena with white beams cutting through the haze above the crowd

How it started

A borrowed generator and forty-one people

The first Rhythm night was in 2014, in the courtyard behind a friend's father's printing works in Adabraka. Two bands, a borrowed generator, forty-one people through the gate and a bill that we covered out of our own wages. Nothing about it suggested a festival.

What it did suggest was that there was an audience in this city for Ghanaian music played properly and paid for honestly — and that nobody was serving it. We have run shows every year since. Some of them lost money. None of them was cancelled.

Today we are eleven people full time, forty more on show weeks, with our own sound and lighting stock in a warehouse in Tema. The festival is three nights in December. The other fifty-one weeks are other people's shows, which is what pays for ours.

See what we do the rest of the year

How we work

Four things we do not negotiate on

Every one of these costs us money. All four are the reason bands take our calls.

Musicians are paid before the doors open

Half the fee on signing, the balance on the day of the show, in the account the artist named. No door split, no 'we will settle next week', no exposure.

Good sound, not loud sound

We own our own system and we bring an engineer who has mixed the room before. If the venue's own kit is not up to it we say so before we take the booking.

One price, printed, with the levy in it

The number on the site is the number you pay. No booking fee appearing at checkout and no surge on the last hundred tickets.

Accra crews, Accra traders

Riggers, medics, security and every food stall inside the fence are hired within Greater Accra. It is cheaper, it is faster, and it is the whole point.

12

Years of shows in Accra

340

+

Shows produced since 2014

210

+

Artists booked and paid

50

Crew on a festival weekend

Audited figures to 31 December 2025. The one number we are not proud of is 2020, when we produced four shows and refunded the rest.

Who we are

Eleven people, four of whom you will meet

On show weeks there are fifty of us. These four are here the other fifty-one weeks of the year.

Kojo Sarpong

Founder & festival director

Booked the first night in 2014 and has booked every one since. Still does the running order himself, on paper, in the week before.

A production crew building an outdoor stage at sunset

Naa Ayorkor Tetteh

Head of production

Runs the site, the crew and the permits. Fifteen years of other people's festivals before this one, which is why ours has a fire route.

A hand adjusting the faders of a lit mixing console

Yaw Ofori-Atta

Technical director

Owns the stock, specs every system and mixes the Main Stage on closing night because he does not trust anybody else with it.

Esi Danquah

Artist relations

The person a manager actually speaks to. Handles contracting, advances, hospitality and the awkward conversation about set lengths.

The people who make it possible

Become a partner

Asked often

What people ask about the company

What is Rhythm Festival?

Three nights of live Ghanaian music across three stages at Independence Square, Accra, run by Rhythm every December since 2014. Twenty-six acts this year, from highlife bands old enough to have played Independence to producers who have never released anything on physical media.

Is it suitable for children?

Under-12s go free with a paying adult and there is a shaded family area beside The Yard until 20:00. After that the Main Stage gets loud and the Late Room is over-18 with ID, no exceptions.

What happens if it rains?

The Main Stage and The Yard both have covered stages and partial cover for the crowd; the Late Room is indoors. We have never cancelled a night, and if we ever have to, every pass rolls to the next edition or refunds in full within seven days.

Read every question

04—06 December 2026

Three nights. Twenty-six acts. One wristband.

Independence Square, Accra. Season passes are on sale now and the Late Room sells out first, every year, without fail.

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