Our Theme For 2026
Sound and Solidarity
Going into the third edition of Kilele, we spent time reflecting on how we got here and what core ideas make us want to endure the long and difficult process of bringing Kilele to life. We are a non-profit entity, barely covering our costs and competing for an ever-shrinking pot of funds dedicated to cultural endeavours. Some of the key questions we asked ourselves were:
What do we celebrate?
What do we offer?
What do we want to provide?
Who are we in this with?
Why are we doing this?
We don’t have definitive answers to all of these, but some thoughts emerged along the way:
We want to celebrate weird, wonderful, and challenging art that doesn’t have many outlets.
We want to offer space to new ideas outside the trappings of “success” or “making it.”
We want to continue offering networks and connections freely and without expectations — we are not here to gatekeep.
We seek to provide frameworks for a culture of care and community.
We recognize the urgent need for solidarity and responses to the climate catastrophe, the erosion of basic human rights, misinformation, hate, discrimination, division, and inequality.
We really love music
From this, we set out to build a theme that captures this feeling, and we landed here:
Kilele brings together artists, collectives, and dreamers under our Sound and Solidarity theme for 2026.
The gathering will feature artists, technologists, and culture workers from across the spectrum — particularly those working on the fringes — people exploring new approaches, fresh perspectives, and exciting collaborations to imagine a better future. Our programme will incorporate projects that build links between generations, locations, technologies, and collaborative expressions, all rooted in care and respect. We are driven by ideas and action, not metrics or marketability. Reclaim culture and join us in sound and solidarity at Kilele ’26.
The “Sound” part is clear — it’s why Kilele exists in the first place. We want to share amazing, unheard music and support artists and scenes from the region. In the 2025 edition, we welcomed 87 artists and learned a great deal about their stories and dreams.
For us, “Solidarity” is about working with those artists to overcome barriers and make art together under a shared purpose, encapsulated in Kampire’s quote: “I’m not winning unless all of us are winning.”
At Kilele, the art and discourse may vary widely — from folkloric to futuristic, acoustic to digital, global to hyper-local — but a common thread connects them: a desire to experience, build, and share new things, aligned with the concept of “outernationalism”: defying creative, spiritual, and political borders, and exploring our relationships as listeners, artists, and culture workers outside of global capitalism and nation-states.
So what does this look like in practice?
At Kilele ’26 you’ll hear sounds from across the region and the world — subcultures, collectives, and individuals with unique stories and perspectives. From coastal Kenyan Mijikenda musicians, to Durban gqom explorers, to singeli and gogo from Tanzania, Sudanese electronics, and onward to gengetone, dancehall, kadodi, techno, experimental electronics, hip hop, and far beyond. There will be provocative and thought-provoking panels offering new takes on persistent issues. There will be opportunities to learn, create, and build with artists and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines — and perhaps more than anything, the chance to form new connections and begin new friendships.
We’ll also have a week-long party, celebrating all of this together — in solidarity.