Ghana’s festivals are where its history, chieftaincy and community come out into the open, with drumming, processions and food. Some fill the streets of Accra, others draw people back to their hometowns. Ten worth seeing, and who celebrates each. Dates shift from year to year, so check ahead before you travel.
Homowo
The Ga people’s festival in and around Accra, whose name means “hooting at hunger”, marking a famine the ancestors survived. It comes with a ban on drumming beforehand, then the sprinkling of kpokpoi, a traditional dish, through the town.
Chale Wote Street Art Festival
A street art and culture festival in Jamestown, Accra, filling the old district with murals, music, performance and crowds. It is younger than the traditional festivals but now one of the city’s biggest street events.
Hogbetsotso
The festival of the Anlo Ewe in the Volta Region, centred on Anloga, remembering the people’s escape and migration from Notsie in present-day Togo. It brings a grand durbar of chiefs.
Aboakyer
The deer-hunting festival of the Effutu people of Winneba, where two groups compete to catch a live antelope and present it to the chief. It is one of the country’s more unusual and best-known festivals.
Fetu Afahye
The festival of the people of Cape Coast (Oguaa), with a colourful procession of chiefs, asafo companies and crowds through the town.
Odwira
A purification and harvest festival of the Akuapem, celebrated at Akropong and other towns, when the community cleanses itself and honours the ancestors before eating the new yam.
Damba
Celebrated across northern Ghana, including Dagbon, tied to the Islamic calendar and marked by drumming, horse-riding and dancing at the chief’s palace.
Bakatue
The festival of Elmina, marking the opening of the fishing season at the lagoon, with a regatta and the casting of a net. It links the town to the sea it lives from.
Kundum
A harvest festival of the Ahanta and Nzema people in the Western Region, giving thanks for the year’s food with drumming and dancing over several days.
Panafest
A pan-African festival based around Cape Coast and Elmina, drawing people from across the diaspora, often held alongside the Emancipation commemorations. It is cultural and reflective rather than a chieftaincy festival.
If you want to see one, plan around it early. The big festivals fill the hometowns and the roads to them, so transport and a place to stay go fast once the date is set.
