{"id":130,"date":"2026-10-12T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.hyperstation.example\/?p=130"},"modified":"2026-10-12T17:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T16:30:00","slug":"felabration-2026-who-are-you-lineup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsroom.ng\/?p=130","title":{"rendered":"Felabration 2026 Opens in Lagos with Femi, Seun and Made Kuti Headlining"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Felabration, the annual festival celebrating the life and music of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, is under way in Lagos. The 2026 edition runs from October 12 to 18 at the New Afrika Shrine in Ikeja, under the theme &#8220;Who Are You?!&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The programme blends concerts with art exhibitions, dance, fashion, debates and other cultural activities, continuing the festival&#8217;s tradition of mixing music with conversation about society and politics, themes that ran through Fela&#8217;s work.<\/p>\n<h2>The lineup<\/h2>\n<p>Members of the Kuti family once again headline the week: Femi Kuti, Seun Kuti and Made Kuti are all on the bill. They are joined by artists including Terry Apala and Ice Prince, among others, with each night featuring a different mix of Afrobeat, highlife, hip-hop and Afropop performers.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside the Shrine programme, Freedom Park on Lagos Island is hosting a parallel series called <em>Underground System 5<\/em> on the same dates, with gates opening at 6pm, performances from 7pm and an entry fee of N3,000.<\/p>\n<h3>Key points<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Dates:<\/strong> October 12 to 18, 2026.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Main venue:<\/strong> New Afrika Shrine, Ikeja.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Theme:<\/strong> &#8220;Who Are You?!&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Headliners:<\/strong> Femi Kuti, Seun Kuti and Made Kuti.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Parallel events:<\/strong> <em>Underground System 5<\/em> at Freedom Park, N3,000 entry.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why Felabration endures<\/h2>\n<p>Felabration was started in 1998 by Fela&#8217;s daughter, Yeni Anikulapo-Kuti, the year after his death, and it has grown into one of Lagos&#8217;s best-known cultural festivals. Fela&#8217;s birthday, October 15, falls during the festival week. For many young Nigerians, the event is a chance to experience live Afrobeat with full horn sections and dancers, a sound that continues to influence artists worldwide.<\/p>\n<h2>Background<\/h2>\n<p>The New Afrika Shrine was opened by Femi and Yeni Kuti in 2000 as a successor to Fela&#8217;s original Afrika Shrine, and it remains a popular live music venue throughout the year. During Felabration, crowds often stay late into the night, and the event draws visitors from other states and from abroad.<\/p>\n<p>Attendees are advised to plan transport ahead, as Ikeja roads get busy in the evenings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-credit\"><small>Photo: Unsplash (illustrative).<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The week-long festival runs October 12 to 18 at the New Afrika Shrine under the theme &#8216;Who Are You?!&#8217;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,6],"tags":[14,50,51,91],"class_list":["post-130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-music","tag-afrobeat","tag-fela-kuti","tag-felabration","tag-new-afrika-shrine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsroom.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsroom.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsroom.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsroom.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsroom.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsroom.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsroom.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsroom.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsroom.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsroom.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}