Two days straight, beachside is how the partying will drag on or be staged when the 2024 Afro Nation festival makes a landing in Portimão, Southern Portugal by June end.

At the venue awaiting a crowd that just wants to feel good are Rema and then Asake. Together with the US-based singer, Nicki Minaj opened the line-up of music acts that a global Afrobeats community can expect to see up close between 26 and 28 June.

Up to seven months before this, it could have been in Lagos where the community gathered if not for the show getting cancelled. Burna Boy had been announced as the headliner to entertain ever-thirsty fans waving against the stage barricades. Afro Nation apologised for the cancellation and initiated efforts to refund those who bought tickets.

But this time in Portimão, Portugal is sacrosanct. It looked like it with the grouping of emoji that Nicki Minaj added in response to an Afro Nation Instagram post on Monday announcing her in the line-up of musicians.

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Organisers have made a note about when tickets will be available. That will be in two days, beginning with a priority sale by 10:00 a.m. on 25 January and then there will be room for everyone else to bid for their passes.

Other Nigerian music icons Afro Nation enthusiasts will get to see are Omah Lay, Flavour, and then the rapper odumodublvck, with Chance singer Seyi Vibez closing the curtain in the row call.

Why the Afro Nation is putting together a festival in Portimão is for the port city’s attraction as “a huge tourism hub”.

It is the restaurants, nightlife, stunning hotels and villas, historic sites that have probably informed the choice of location by the hosts who believe there’s something for everyone coming down there to enjoy an Afrobeats party.

For so long Nigeria has been beaming a searchlight to find a unique type of export that can rival crude oil sales. Afrobeats is that export that has thrived wonderfully outside the Nigerian shore.

Ayodele Johnson

Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.