Madaraka Festival

Since 2014, Madaraka Festival has attracted over 3,000 patrons and reached over 3 million people digitally. Proceeds from the festival go towards One Vibe Africa’s Education Music and Art Program (EMAP) which has served over 500 youth in Kisumu, Kenya. Madaraka Festival is the most consistent African event in the Diaspora dubbed: “a night to remember” by Northwest Music Scene, “a premier African-influenced festival” by YES Magazine, and a “globally oriented event” by Humanosphere Magazine.

One Vibe is presenting the 5th annual Madaraka Festival and doing so with a celebration and fundraising dinner in Seattle. Our goal is to launch “Road To Madaraka” supporting One Vibe Africa’s initiative on building communities through sustainability and entrepreneurship by producing other such Madaraka Festivals in Kenya and other African countries. Our hope is to expand, one community at a time, by producing a Madaraka Festival in each community with the proceeds supporting that community as well as One Vibe’s work. Our goal is to leverage our network throughout Africa to reach many communities through music, the universal language.

We aim at fostering entrepreneurship and self-reliance by collaborating with organizations similar to One Vibe in each community. Our track record in Kenya since 2008 as well as our current success of creating more than 16 full time jobs for youth in Kisumu show that through this type of organic collaboration and expansion, African youth can benefit more from One Vibe’s expansive network. We also aim at fostering inter-Africa youth collaboration by using the musical platform to expand One Vibe’s EMAP in each community where we hold Madaraka Festival. We have feet on the ground in Kenya (Nairobi and Kisumu), and are working to have our headliners from previous Seattle editions perform in Kenya and the other African countries where we will stage Madaraka Festivals in the coming years.

We are into our 5th year of producing this festival. We’ve had artists such as Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Sauti Sol, Blitz The Ambassador, Rocky Dawuni, Owuor Arunga, Chimurenga Renaissance and many more perform. Madaraka Festival has established itself as the premiere African Festival in the Diaspora. The fundraising dinner and private documentary premiere in 2017 raised over $58k in one night. The 2018 program in Seattle will feature a silent auction, live auction, paddle raise and entertainment. Our vision is to offer packages for attendees to travel to Kenya to see the work One Vibe has done and to create collaborative opportunities between people in Africa and the United States.