From a borrowed generator to Independence Square
Twelve years of shows in Accra, including the two that went badly. Both are here because both are why we work the way we do.
Twelve years
How we got from forty-one people to eighteen thousand
The good years and the two that were not. Both are here because both are why the company works the way it does.
2014
A courtyard in Adabraka
Two bands, a borrowed generator, forty-one people and a bar tab we covered ourselves. Nobody called it a festival and nobody was meant to.
2016
Two nights, and the first real bill
Six acts, four hundred people and the first time an artist was paid an advance rather than a share of the door. Everything since follows from that decision.
2018
The night the power went
Two thousand people at the Alliance Française and a venue supply that dropped mid-headline. We bought our first generator the following Monday and have never run off a house ring main since.
2019
Silverbird, and a proper site plan
Our first stage partner, our first fire route drawn by somebody qualified, and the first year the festival made money rather than merely survived.
2020
The year we refunded everything
Four shows in January and February, then nothing. Every ticket refunded in full inside three weeks, every artist paid half their fee anyway, and eight of eleven staff kept on at reduced hours. It cost us four years of savings and it is the reason bands still take our calls.
2022
Independence Square, and the Late Room
Eleven thousand people across three nights and the first Late Room, which Serwaa Boateng asked for in a WhatsApp message and which sold out in nine days.
2024
Ten years, and the tenth-anniversary bill
Every headliner from the first decade back on one stage for a closing session that ran forty minutes long. Nobody complained, including the police.
2025
Eighteen thousand, and a wrap report worth reading
Our biggest edition, our first independent audience survey, and the first year more than half the traders' yard was run by businesses that started at the festival.
Past editions
What the archive looks like
Three frames from the last five years. The full set lives in the wrap reports and we will send you any of them.
2022 · Independence Square
2023 · The Yard
2024 · Tenth anniversary
Last December
What it actually looks like
Nobody has ever booked a ticket off a poster. These are from the 2025 edition, shot by the crew who were working it.
2018
Twenty minutes of silence at the Alliance
The venue supply dropped four songs into the headline set and took twenty minutes to come back. Two thousand people stood in the dark and, to their enormous credit, mostly sang. We refunded nobody because nobody asked, which made it worse rather than better.
We now carry two silenced generators to every outdoor show and we have never once needed the second one.
2020
The year there was nothing to produce
Nine shows cancelled between March and December. We refunded every ticket inside three weeks and paid every contracted artist half their fee for work that never happened, because they had turned down other things to hold the date.
It cost four years of savings. It also means we have never had to advertise for a band since.
The plan for the next twelve is the same as the last twelve
Book good musicians, pay them properly, charge an honest price and put the difference back into the kit. It is not a strategy anybody would write down in a deck and it has kept eleven people in work for twelve years in a business where nobody lasts five.
Kojo Sarpong
Founder & festival director
See what we do all year
Asked often
What people ask about the record
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.
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.
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.
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.
