As the rest of the world prepares for the end of the year festive period,
Reggae fans and artists gathered in Abuja, Nigeria to celebrate Reggae festival 2025.

Abuja

Reggae Festival 2025 brought together fans and artists in Abuja, Nigeria, to celebrate the genre's enduring message of peace and unity. The event highlighted reggae's evolution from its Caribbean roots into a global phenomenon, with Nigerian artists emphasizing the music's conscious and prophetic nature.

Participants noted that while reggae continues to grow in Nigeria, artists face challenges in sales and online streaming compared to other genres. Despite these hurdles, the local reggae scene is thriving, and the genre's cultural significance was underscored by UNESCO's 2018 recognition of reggae as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

Abuja celebrates the sound of peace and unity with “Reggae”

As the rest of the world prepares for the end-of-the-year festive period, reggae fans and artists gathered in Abuja, Nigeria to celebrate Reggae Festival 2025. With his signature rhythm and beats, the John has reached far beyond his Caribbean origins, becoming a global phenomenon that transits cultural and geographical boundaries. A general perspective about reggae, it's conscious music, all right? Anyone that is into reggae music is seen as a prophet because reggae music is not something that you just speak and run with it. It has to be in you, okay? It's inborn. And so for every reggae artist or every reggae musician, that person is seen as a prophet. And so every prophet comes with a message. Reggae music still has enough room to grow in Nigeria, especially, but I've met, my goodness, so many talented, top-notch, all-the-way artists, all the way up in Nigeria here. I think Nigeria is, apart from being the giant of Africa, I think worldwide we're recognized for everything concerning entertainment. Some artists here see African reggae artists are find very hard to catch up with their other colleagues and other Jones in terms of sales and streaming online. Well, most people in reggae outside Nigeria, especially in UK, are basically underground artists. So, um, I know of Chucky over at Portsmouth, Harvard, where I live. He is like the biggest out there. And, well, when it comes to Nigeria, he's not really as good as we sound. Everyone doing the reggae music are doing well. Everybody from different genre of music, we listen to reggae. So yeah, reggae artists are doing well. The sound speaks for itself. So everyone in the reggae industry are doing perfectly well. In 2018, UNESCO designated reggae music as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity. Michael Dubier, Africa News, Abuja, Nigeria.

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Breakdown