Regenerative fashion meets global beats: Kwetu Kwanza integrates with Nyege Nyege 10th edition

The world-renowned Nyege Nyege Festival is celebrating its landmark 10th anniversary edition from 20th to 23rd November 2025 at the breathtaking Kalagala Falls in Kangulumira, Uganda.

However, the biggest shift this year is the full integration of the Kwetu Kwanza Fashion Festival on the Nyege Nyege site. The two major cultural platforms are joining forces to create tangible connections among music, fashion, dance, and theatre, art forms which are deeply intertwined in African traditions.

Set against 40 acres of pristine riverside wilderness under the theme Ekyigunda Ky’omuliro – The Gathering of the Flame, Nyege Nyege will host five dynamic stages and 300 acts spanning electronic, hip hop, amapiano, and traditional African sounds.

But it's the sixth annual Kwetu Kwanza event—East Africa’s leading platform for circular and regenerative fashion—that is poised to steal the spotlight .

Founded by IGC Fashion, the Kwetu Kwanza movement, which means “Ours First” in Swahili, embodies the powerful belief that the planet must come before extractive systems.

This year, the festival will host a diverse array of designers, filmmakers, artists, and cultural practitioners, all dedicated to interrogating the ethics, origins, and impacts of what we wear. It serves as a necessary countercurrent, challenging narrow definitions of sustainability that often overlook the African experience and history of sustainable fashion.

The move to co-locate with Nyege Nyege, marking a progression from last year's partnership in Jinja, signals an important shift in the region’s creative landscape. Innovative collaborations between designers, musicians, and the textile and audio fields, developed through artist residencies, aim to reach entirely new, large-scale audiences.

Kwetu Kwanza’s 6th edition is running with the timely theme, “What Can Emerge from Collapse?” This invites reflection on creative rebirth during times of breakdown. The breakdown of fast-fashion mirrors wider environmental and social crises, yet within this disintegration lies the potential for renewal. Attendees will see how forgotten fabrics, discarded materials, and neglected traditions become the seeds of innovation.

The festival, located next to the Hakuna Kulala Stage, will showcase a fashion exhibition featuring over 30 designers from the continent and beyond.

Beyond the runway, there will be live performances and engaging daily workshops covering screen printing, indigenous material techniques, and the co-manipulation of audio and textile elements. Film screenings, including the Ugandan premiere of Resurgence of Lubugo by Hannah Allchurch and IGC Fashion, will round out this ambitious celebration of sustainable creativity.