The Homecoming Festival took over Lagos and we have the scoop!

This year, the festival partnered with Kuda Bank, TIkTok, The Orchard, Jameson Irish Whiskey, Power Horse and MTV Base to support performances, workshops and pop-ups across Lagos.

The weekend festivities kicked off with a welcome party featuring all your familiar faves, artists and influencers. In the spirit of homecoming, the crowd was as eclectic as one would expect; drawing on youthful exuberance, fashion heavily influenced by the 90’s and streetwear, and hair, jewelry and make up almost as a rebellious self expression. If you are about making a statement, this is the crowd for you.

(From beaded hair to skimpy outfits and eyeliner based makeup, alté glam seemed to be the theme of the night.)

The night also witnessed the screening of Teezee’s new documentary titled ‘WTF is Alte’ a documentary chronicling the rise of the Alté music scene of which he is the self proclaimed pioneer.

The festival itself kicked off with two days of a fashion pop-up, art tour and educational panels.

Following its mantra of marrying worlds, the homecoming team took over the luxury concept store Alara with a showcase of both International and local brands streetwear brands like Off-White, Stussy, Patta, Cactus Flea Market, Pith, Denim Tears, Waffles & Cream, Motherland, Ambush with exclusive homecoming collaborations and merchandise.

Fashion brand, DyeLab also hosted a fun and creative customization workshop showing a display of dyeing techniques and methods and participants got to customize their own Nike T-shirts with traditional dyeing techniques. The fashion pop up also hosted a section dedicated to Nigerian brands who employed local dyeing techniques; THIS US US, Kowa studio, Post Imperial and crowd favorite, Dye Lab.

Just as important as showcasing the talent was imparting knowledge from industry experts and the education sessions hosted by Homecoming in collaboration with TikTok and the Orchard discussed everything from the rise of African streetwear, to a masterclass in artist management and a talk with guerilla artist currently on the rise in the UK, Slawn.

Present at these panels were industry experts like Grace Ladoja, Asa Asika, Oluwaseun Lloyd and Sarz who shared music knowledge on how to finish a record, manage artists and important knowledge on social media management and how to use Tiktok for maximum reach.

Art director and founder of Pacers Gallery Lagos, Wunika Mukan took us on a journey through art spaces in the city and a look at what West Africa has to offer the art world.

The most anticipated event of the weekend was the music concert held on Sunday the 17th of April at Harbour point, VI promising dazzling performances from top-billing artists like Central Cee, Asake, Ardee, Black Sherif who had his first ever performance in Nigeria, Rema, and Fireboy. Homecoming once again took Nigeria to the world.

The night began with DJ Obi ramping up the energy in the audience with delectable beats and mixes and the concert officially began with a party before the first act even arrived.

In its usual ‘playlist’ fashion the crowd was entertained by nonstop energetic performance after performance with the crowd growing even more thrilled with each act.

When Black Sherif took the stage the audience lost their minds as the Ghanian artist, clearly thrilled by the reception, led the audience in a frenzied sing along of his latest hits from ‘Kwaku the Traveller’ to ‘Second Sermon’

In tune with the spirit of masks and balaclavas which dominated the looks at the homecoming festival, a masked Rema got on stage and killed his set.

Thrilling the crowd with old hits like ‘Bounce, and ‘Woman’ and songs from his newly released album, he reminded us with is carefree energy and stage presence why he has been a rapidly rising star since we heard “Another Banger”.

The night also saw performances from hit makers like Asake, Fireboy, Ardee, Central Cee, Deto Black, Fave, SWAGD, Zinoleesky, Slawn, Midas, Kida Kudz, Lancey, SWAGD and twin dancing DJs Wanni x Handi

All in all, Homecoming weekend was a success and the concert was a befitting end to a 3-day fest that had seen African talents and industry creatives congregating to exchange cultures and knowledge in Lagos city.

For now we say, goodbye Homecoming, it was fun while it lasted and we cannot wait to learn from and mingle with Nigeria, Africa and all of its diaspora again next year.