Running order
Thirteen hours
Gates at five, shuttles at six in the morning, and everything in between published in advance and kept to within five minutes.
Gates
5:00 PM
Last entry
11:00 PM
Re-entry closes
9:00 PM
Site closes
6:00 AM
Times are the ones we publish and the ones we keep. Every set on this bill starts within five minutes of its slot.
Get a ticketRunning order
The whole night, in order
Set times are confirmed six weeks out and we do not move them afterwards. If an act runs long, the changeover absorbs it — the next stage still opens when it says it will.
1
5:00 PM
Gates open
Bag check on Liberation Road, food yard open from the first minute. Come early — the queue at seven is the queue everyone complains about.
2
6:15 PM
Palm Grove opens
Selorm Adzah under the trees while the square is still filling. The quietest good set of the night.
3
8:00 PM
Main stage
Kwabena Osei with a full band, then a changeover you will want to spend at the drum circle rather than the bar.
4
9:30 PM
The headline set
Ama Serwaa and eleven musicians playing thirty years of highlife in ninety minutes.
5
11:15 PM
The Basement
Kojo Nkansah over a live drummer. Low ceiling, no seats, and the loudest forty minutes on the site.
6
12:30 AM
The all-night session
Two rooms, six selectors and no running order at all. This is the part nobody plans and everybody remembers.
7
4:00 AM
Sunrise set
Whoever is still standing, playing to whoever is still there. It has been a different act every year since 2011.
8
6:00 AM
Site closes
Shuttles to Circle and Osu from the Castle Road gate. Lost property opens at the production office at ten.
Getting there
And getting home again
Black Star Square sits between the shore and 28th February Road, which means it is easy to reach and hard to park at. Almost nobody drives to this one.
On foot
Twenty minutes from Osu along the shore, ten from the Independence Arch. The Castle Road gate is the quiet one; Liberation Road is where the queue builds after seven.
Trotro and taxi
Anything heading to Osu or Labadi drops within five minutes' walk. Drop-off is on 28th February Road — drivers cannot get closer than that once the site is live.
Getting home
Free shuttles from the Castle Road gate to Circle and Osu, every fifteen minutes from 1:00 AM until the site closes at six. Show any ticket to board.
Good to know
On the night
The four the box office is asked most in the week before a night. Everything else is on the full list.
How do I get there and home?
Black Star Square is walkable from Osu and a short trotro from Circle. Shuttles run from the Castle Road gate to Circle and Osu from 1:00 AM until the site closes, and they are free with any ticket.
Can I leave and come back?
General admission gets one re-entry before 9:00 PM. Stage side is unlimited all night. Both need the wristband intact — a cut band is a new ticket, and we cannot make an exception at the gate.
What happens if it rains?
It goes ahead. Three of the four stages are covered and the square drains well, but December in Accra is dry and we have lost exactly one set to weather since 2011.
What can I bring?
A sealed water bottle, a small bag and a phone battery. No glass, no professional cameras without a pass, no chairs. There is free drinking water at every stage and you will need it.
Afterwards
What the square says
Collected on the way out and after the shuttles, which is the only time anybody tells you the truth about a festival.
Audience
I have been to every one since 2019 and it is the only night in Accra where I know the sound will be right. You can hear the bass guitar. At a festival. That should not be remarkable and it is.
Abena Mensah
Osu · seventh year
Audience
We sponsored the food yard expecting a logo on a banner. What we got was nine thousand people who now know our name and a production team that answered every email in a day.
Yaw Boakye
Nsuo Water · partner
Ready for the loudest night of the year?
Tier one is the cheapest this ticket will ever be, and it has sold out before December every year since 2021.
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