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\n Taking over Livespot Entertarium, Eko Hotel, EbonyLife Place and Alliance Fran\u00e7aise, the festival\u2019s first edition set a powerful foundation for pan-African creative mobility and global cultural exchange.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\n \u25cf<\/strong>28,683 attendees across 8+ countries and 50+ industries attended EWA2025.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n \u25cf Five multi-venue hubs: Livespot Entertarium, Eko Hotel, EbonyLife Place, Alliance Fran\u00e7aise and Heritage Place.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n \u25cf 150+ speakers; 61 sessions; 93 films screened; 20 music showcases; 9 fashion showcases; 9 tech startups (Deal Room); 10 Hackathon companies; 8 Soundlab producers, 8 Soundlab songwriters, 8 content market partners; 6 music market partners including Empire and Virgin Music.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n \u25cf 5 million+ online engagements and 800 million+ digital reach and impressions across Asia, Africa, North America, and Europe.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n \u25cf Entertainment Week Africa was visited by numerous leaders including The Minister of Trade, and Investment, Jumoke Oduwole, British Deputy High Commissioner Johnny Baxter, First Lady of Kwara State, Olufolake Abdulrazaq, Tiwa Savage, Don Jazzy, Yemi Alade, Waje, Sasha P, and more. The Commissioner for Culture and Tourism Lagos says event \u201cshowed what\u2019s possible when passionate voices from across the creative industries are brought together\u201d\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n Over the six days of the festival (18th \u2013 23rd November) EWA welcomed 28,683 pass-holders from 8+ countries and over 50 different industries across its conference, screen, music and interdisciplinary creator programme.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n The top four countries to visit the festival including Nigeria were Ghana, Senegal, Kenya, and the UK. Passes to the inaugural event were bought by 51 different industries, with the highest attendance from entertainment; creators; advertising; music; technology; media; marketing; filmmaking, business consulting; events; design; public relations & communication services.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n This year\u2019s theme, \u201cClose the Gap,\u201d <\/strong>served as both a challenge and a blueprint, uniting talent, capital, policy and platforms in one ecosystem. Livespot360\u2019s Managing Director Tiwa Medubi <\/strong>underscored this in her closing remarks:\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThis year, under the theme \u2018Close the Gap,\u2019 we set out to do something very specific: bring talent, capital, policy and platforms into the same room \u2013 not in theory, but in practice<\/em>.\u201d <\/strong>She added: \u201cAcross every lab, panel, showcase, screening and performance, one thing was clear: the gap between potential and reality is closing, because people are doing the work.<\/em>\u201d <\/strong>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n Opening Night drew dignitaries including British Deputy High Commissioner Johnny Baxter; the First Lady of Kwara State Her Excellency Olufolake Abdulrazaq; Commissioner for Tourism, Arts & Culture, Toke Benson Awoyinka, Minister of Trade & Investment, Jumoke Oduwole, and more. British Deputy High Commissioner, Jonny Baxter emphasised the festival\u2019s diplomatic and economic significance: \u201cEntertainment Week Africa represents a week of celebration, partnership and progress\u2026 By Closing The Gap, we\u2019re not just building bridges; we\u2019re creating highways for ideas, talent and investments to flow freely between Nigeria and the UK.<\/em>\u201d\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n EWA delivered more than 35 panels, 22 workshops, 20 masterclasses, and 93 film screenings, tackling themes like distribution pipelines, creative entrepreneurship, emerging technology, youth culture, and cross-border mobility. Creators and young professionals moved fluidly through the Creators Hub, Creative Job Fair, Gen Z Republic, and the EWA Creative Marketplace. Film highlights included Chronicles of Afrobeat, The Herd, Dust to Dream, and Mama Nike & Magazine Dreams, accompanied by high-demand director sessions.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n A 4-day intensive Story Lab workshop for aspiring writers, facilitated by Lani Aisida, Nicole Asinugo and Dami Elebe, and supported by Netflix, Amazon Prime, NdaniTV and Africa Magic. 15 contenders shortlisted to 8 participants, producing 6 polished loglines and pitch-ready story concepts.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n The Deal Room embodied the theme \u201cClose The Gap\u201d: four days of mentorship, readiness labs and investor sessions. It received 178+ entries, with 9 companies making it to the accelerator programme after a series of interviews.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n Four of these companies: Aktivate, FriendnPal, Growwr and Sports Reels<\/em>, were identified as fully ready to scale, each attracting investor interest in the room. Beyond the numbers, founders hit key milestones: for many, it was their first time pitching to investors.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n In parallel, the Hackathon extended this impact through two days of product refinement, where 10 teams were selected to build and iterate rapidly. Three standout companies; Musetter (Music Tech), Owambe (Fashion Tech) and Alaba (Music Tech) emerged from the sprint. Investors supporting the Deal Room and Hackathon included Future Africa, Askya Investment Partners, Catalyst Fund <\/em>and Consonance Invest. <\/em>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n In a landmark gender-equity conversation with Yemi Alade, Waje, Qing Madi, Teni, Sasha P, Tiwa Savage spotlighted representation gaps: \u201cOut of the top 100 songs in Nigeria on Apple Music, there\u2019s only one female song\u2026 The gap is too wide, we need to balance the scale.<\/em>\u201d Music executive Don Jazzy added: \u201cWe\u2019re too masculine\u2026 It affects the numbers, the airplay, the clubs<\/em>\u201d.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n Fashion programming also took centre stage, with 120+ entries, 10 emerging designers, all of whom showcased on the EWA Runway Coterie stage spotlighting designers such as Korede James, Dust of the Earth, Nex by Necca, Josh Amor, PK Crochet, Estaz, David Black, Bernard Samuel <\/em>and Sevon Dejana<\/em>, each presenting forward-thinking interpretations of contemporary African style.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n The week also featured celebratory cultural moments, including Jokes & Jollof, where Lucky Chidiebere Obi, winner of Big Spoon 2025<\/em>, received a \u20a61 million prize and the announcement of his upcoming tour with Basketmouth.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n EWA 2025 was made possible through the support of its sponsors, venue, industry, content, music market, and media partners, including Livespot, Rent-A-Rig, Heineken, Lagos State Tourism, Pepsi, MTN, TikTok, British High Commission, High Commission of Canada, US Embassy, Essenza, Multichoice; venue partners Eko Hotel, EbonyLife Place, Alliance Fran\u00e7aise, Livespot Entertarium; industry partners Blu Pictures, Netflix, Amazon Prime, NdaniTV, Africa Magic, Choc City, ONErpm, Vuga Music, Alec, Mad Solutions; content market partners Blue Pictures Entertainment, Circuits Global Solutions, Africa Magic, Showmax, MTN, Wonder Media Kind, MBO Capital, Regal Stone Capital; music market partners Xchange, Empire, ONErpm, Virgin\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n Music, WeTalkSound, Chocolate City; and media partners Rollingstone Africa, TechCabal, Marie Claire, WeTalkSound, Business Insider Africa, News Central TV, Culture Custodian, Business Day, BellaNaija, Olori Supergirl, Nollywire, Amplify Africa, Trace, CoolFM.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n Founder of Entertainment Week Africa, Deola Art Alade said: \u201cOur ambition over the coming years is for Entertainment Week Africa to establish itself as a critical part of the economic, intellectual and artistic capital of this great city. We\u2019re delighted with the first steps towards that.<\/em>\u201d\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n The festival returns from November 17\u201322, 2026, themed \u201cClosing the Gap,\u201d with expanded pan-African programming and a continued commitment to accelerating creative-industry growth across the continent. Registration is now open on our website.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source africa.businessinsider.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Taking over Livespot Entertarium, Eko Hotel, EbonyLife Place and Alliance Fran\u00e7aise, the festival\u2019s first edition set a powerful foundation for pan-African creative mobility and global cultural exchange. \u25cf28,683 attendees across 8+ countries and 50+ industries attended EWA2025. \u25cf Five multi-venue hubs: Livespot Entertarium, Eko Hotel, EbonyLife Place, Alliance Fran\u00e7aise and Heritage Place. \u25cf 150+ speakers; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2178658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2178657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Entertainment-week-Africa-2025-wraps-first-edition-as-Livespot360-redefines.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2178657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2178659,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178657\/revisions\/2178659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2178658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2178657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2178657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2178657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n <\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n
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