Last year, Uganda’s parliament tried to ban the organization of a festival focused on electronic and alternative music.
The Nyege Nyege festival, which focuses on electronic and alternative music, is going on at the headwaters of the Nile in Uganda. There is also one Finnish name on the list of over 300 performers, the three-piece band Muovipussi.
The plastic bag traveled to Uganda with his own money.
– The organizers couldn’t afford to pay for our trips, and we don’t get a grant for this, so we decided to pay ourselves, says one of the band’s three members, Heidi Finnberg.
Nyege Nyege takes place in the city of Jinja, which is located on the shores of Lake Victoria at the point where the Blue Nile begins to flow towards the Mediterranean Sea.
There are more than 350 performers from different parts of Africa and Europe at the festival.
Founder and main organizer of the festival Derek Debri says that Nyege Nyege was born in 2015 from the need of Ugandan artists making alternative music to create a common space.
– There were no performance opportunities for more special and strange bands, we had to establish one, says Derek Debri.
An immoral festival?
Nyege Nyege has established itself artistically, but the colorful festival has also run into conflicts with the Ugandan state. Last year, Uganda’s parliament tried to ban the festival on the grounds that it promotes “sexual immorality”.
The permission to organize was given just a few days before the start of Nyege Nyege in an emergency meeting chaired by the Prime Minister. We didn’t want to lose tourism income by canceling at the last minute.
This year, the festival received permission to organize, but the discussion around the moral threat it causes continues. Uganda is known for its value conservatism and its legislation criminalizing sexual minorities – and Nyege Nyege’s jovial atmosphere is not pleasing to many.
The threat of terrorism overshadows the fun
The Islamist ADF movement operating from the side of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has committed three terrorist acts in Uganda this year. The British and American embassies do not recommend their citizens to participate in the Nyege Nyege festival due to the threat of terrorism.
Derek Debru assures that the festival can be carried out safely.
– Guests can enter the festival area only through three security checks, and there are hundreds of policemen, soldiers and security guards in the area more than in previous years, says festival organizer Derek Debru.
In the video below, you can watch Ylen Aamu’s report from the Nyege Nyege festival in its entirety.