SEPTOBERFEST IS BACK AND BIGGER THAN EVER!
The newest Summer Festival with a focus on Electronic Dance Music, Community, and Celebrating Art and Expression makes a return.
The beginning of August is always exciting as it marks the start of the Zambian Summer. But all the major summer events don’t start until September and October when the weather is at its warmest. Which means, short shorts, sun dresses, legs out, designer shades, and an overabundance of food and music festivals to wash off the winter shivers.
Septoberfest, a music festival that started out as a celebration of three friends’ birthdays that fall on the same day — has grown to be one of the most awaited summer events. Though still relatively new on the scene, Septoberfest will be no exception as one of the most exciting festivals making a return in 2023.
Unlike its counterparts, Septoberfest is unique in the sense that it’s currently the only summer music festival in Zambia that has a focus on EDM (Electronic Dance Music) in an age saturated with piano and other genres outside of the electronic music scene. Over the last couple of years, EDM has grown exponentially in Zambia as more people are opening themselves up to the sub-genre that’s now slowly catching on as mainstream.
The genre still has a long way to go before it can be considered household in Zambia, but it’s become increasingly evident by a few EDM sundowner events that there’s an emergent desire for it, and a good assertion of this would be the “first” Septoberfest held last year that saw a crowd of over
200 EDM music lovers show up for the festival. After the modest success the festival managed to achieve last year it’s no surprise that 2023 would anticipate another Septoberfest — which the organizers are teasing to be more ambitious in every way.
“Electronic music is the type of music a lot of my friends and I enjoy — so it came naturally that we picked EDM as our focus…,” Mukuma Mark Musenge, one of the minds behind Septoberfest shares when asked why his team set out on a festival focused on the genre. “I remember joking with a friend this one time that if you wanna enjoy EDM at any club in Zambia, even the most prominent ones, you’d have to go to the club around 7 pm. Which makes no sense, cause’ who’s really going to the club at 7 pm? Septoberfest was born as a result of the struggle to find the kind of music and environment where we can vibe to the kind of music we like with a community outside of our friend group. We wanted other people to be able to experience EDM in the way that we do.”
The event started out as a birthday tradition between friends of booking an Airbnb each year or camping out in the wilderness in order to have a place they could escape to where they could go and celebrate their September 27th birth date with drinks, lights, and extremely loud electronic music was an instant hit amongst the intimate crowd they’d invite to join them in their festivities. The group of friends saw the potential of turning their revelries into something bigger than what they were and slowly worked towards making it a circuit party event focused on community celebrating art and expression through music, “We got to a point where my friends and I became synonymous with raves to the people who attended our chills,” Mukuma shares. “the positive feedback we received made us realize we were meant to do these parties for a larger audience — that’s when we put pen to paper and decided to embark on making Septoberfest a thing.”
In 2022, Mukuma and his friends decided it was time to open the raves up to the public, and the first official Septoberfest was held on the 24th of September 2022, themed: Black Light for its glow-in-the-dark emphasis. The event featured a lineup of some of Zambia’s best EDM DJs such as Astro Invader, Credos, Magic Mars, Mdl:tso, and SHE Spells Doom. Some of these are confirmed to be making a return to the decks this year with a few new additions to be expected to funk things up!
This year Septoberfest will be even bigger as the team is switching things up by introducing a Tropical theme. Fans can expect neon paradise décor, neon-tropical photo booths, tropical-themed foods, UV-reactive tropical drinks, chillout zones, and of course, a fusion of tropical electronic music and the glow-in-the-dark vibe that has become a staple.
“We’re really trying to make the experience bigger and better this time around. We’re not just trying to focus on the DJs alone…but on making the entire event a memorable experience,” Mukuma shares. “We’re taking everything into account from the bathroom experience, food, lighting…these are a lot of things people struggle with…so we’re keeping everything at the back of our minds. Some people get so caught up in the artists that they forget that there’s more that goes into making an event unforgettable than just artists alone. For us, the goal is to make the experience enjoyable in every possible way.”
“I can’t say enough how proud I am of myself and my team for coming this far…as it stands, we don’t have onboarding partners — the event is fully funded and organized independently by my friends and me. This is intentional, however, as we want to focus on perfecting the type of experience that we want to bring to the audience that we serve before bringing more people on board,” Mukuma elaborates. “Part of creating and sustaining something that works is curating whom we partner with. We want Septoberfest to be a massive festival that sees people from outside traveling into the country to attend. That’s where we want to take our event in the future and making sure we remain true to the vision is of utmost importance.”
Septoberfest 2023 is set for 23rd September at a venue to be disclosed soon. So keep your eyes on their socials @Septoberfest and mark your calendars, gather your squads, and get ready to experience a fusion of music and fun.
Click the link below to secure your tickets.
