Inaugural edition · Dates to be announced
The Nile Festival
An annual celebration of South Sudanese culture and identity.
What it is
The Nile Festival brings the platform off the page and into the open: a week of culture, sport, fashion, food and music, and the long-term engine that keeps the newsroom independent.
The festival is also the platform’s sustainability engine. Alongside it sits the foundation, which carries the Nile Explorer Scholarships, the Nile Festival Awards and the Nile Explorer Academy, so that the newsroom and the training pipeline are funded from something the public actually turns up to rather than from donor cycles.
The strands
CultureMusic, performance and the traditions carried between the states and the diaspora.
SportCompetition across the states, and the athletes who carry the country's name abroad.
Fashion & textilesDesigners and makers working with South Sudanese cloth, pattern and form.
FoodThe cooking of the river and the regions, and the people who keep it.
EntertainmentScreenings, live sessions and the closing concert.
The Nile Festival Awards
Recognising work across the festival's strands, run through the foundation alongside the Nile Explorer Scholarships and the Nile Explorer Academy.
Editorial note: this page describes the festival as set out in the communications strategy. Dates, venues, the programme and ticketing are not yet confirmed and nothing on this page should be read as a published schedule.