Midweek Bonus Picks - Nyege Nyege Fest (Uganda), Lake of Stars Fest (Malawi) & Nigerian Bagpipers

Midweek Bonus Picks are quick snippets of interesting stuff that's worth a look or listen.

We feature a Pick of the Week every Saturday. Now we've added Midweek Bonus Picks, which are quick snippets of interesting stuff that's worth a look or listen.

Nyege Nyege Fest (Uganda)

Mixmag wrote about Uganda's Nyege Nyege festival a while back, calling it "a genuine, experimental African utopia at the source of the Nile" and "a festival with progressive programming."

It was founded a little over a decade ago and continued up until 2024. It's not clear what the status is for 2025. The word Nyege Nyege is coined from the Luganda word "ekinyegenyege" meaning "irresistible urge to dance."

On a similar note, Nyege Nyege Tapes offers up Electro Acholi Kaboom from Northern Uganda at Bandcamp. It examines "Luo sonic culture with this 15 track compilation exploring the birth of Electronic Acholi dance music in Northern Uganda."

Lake of Stars Fest (Malawi)

Speaking of festivals, Malawi's got Lake of Stars, which takes place 17th - 19th October, 2025. For more info, try Christopher Conder's article at Songlines magazine, where he wrote about last year's event, the twentieth one. Conder also put together a great collection of Malawian music resources at his Substack site. Malawi!

Nigerian Bagpipers

I'm no ethnomusicologist (though I can say it three times fast...) and I haven't done the research, but I'm guessing that instruments similar to bagpipes are not unheard of in Africa.

A little while back Reuters reported on proper Scottish Highlands bagpipers, in Nigeria. As they put it, “Chukwu Kalu first became fascinated with bagpipes at 18-years-old, and today he's hoping to revive interest in the music that has waned in Nigeria since independence from Britain in 1960.”