Table of Contents
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Festivals in Stone Town/Live Music Events Stone Town/Live Music Stone Town/Festivals Zanzibar/Festival Zanzibar 2023
Sauti za Busara in 2023 took place from Feb 10th to Feb 12th.
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Zanzibar Festival June 2023
The Zanzibar International Film Festival 2023 was held between June 24 and July 2 in Stone Town Zanzibar.
Stone Town Music Festival: Sauti za Busara Festival Zanzibar 2022 (Zanzibar Music Festival 2022/Festivals in Zanzibar 2022)
The Sauti za Busara Zanzibar music festival 2022 took place between Friday, February 11, 2022 and Sunday, February 13, 2022.
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Livestream for Sauti za Busara Zanzibar Festival 2022
READ ALSO: Experiences at Sauti za Busara
Zanzibar Events 2022: Zanzibar Festival July 2022
The Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) normally takes place every July in Stone Town, Zanzibar.
In 2022, ZIFF took place a little early between June 18 and June 26, 2022.
Next year, ZIFF will take place between June 24 and July 2, 2023.
Events in Stone Town: Sauti za Busara, An Annual Zanzibar Music Festival
Every February, Zanzibar hosts Sauti za Busara, nicknamed the “The Friendliest Festival on Planet Earth”.
I can understand how Sauti za Busara earned that name.
Hanging out in Stone Town, Zanzibar on any random day would make you feel loose and irie, ready to open up to strangers, so how much more so then when the island’s everyday activities come to a grinding halt to host the biggest music festival in East Africa, featuring not only Swahili music but also music from the rest of Africa and beyond?
Sauti za Busara 2021 Highlights
How I Came to Attend My First Sauti za Busara Zanzibar Festival
I lived in Dar es Salaam for five years before I attended this Zanzibar music festival for the first time.
Each of those years, friends and family encouraged me to attend with them, but somehow, the logistics were never quite right.
Finally, in February last year, having only been back in Dar es Salaam from Kampala for 10 days, and having just started a new job, I bought a ferry ticket to Zanzibar and decided to go to Sauti za Busara on my own.
I could do that because I knew half of Dar e Salaam would be at the festival.
Not literally, but half of the Dar es Salaam I live in, i.e., folks in the arts and culture scene and (young) adult Tanzanians whose primary language is English (quite a small group in Dar) would all be in Stone Town for the weekend.
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Arriving in Stone Town for Sauti za Busara Music Festival Zanzibar
So this is how I found myself arriving on the shores of Stone Town at 3 p.m. on a Friday afternoon.
If you’ve never taken the ferry from Dar es Salaam to Zanzibar, approaching Stone Town feels like stepping into a storybook.
The colorful façade of 19th century buildings and the dhows milling about are all it takes to make you feel like you’re entering another world.
First things first, I met up with a friend who I knew was working on Sauti za Busara’s technical crew, sorted out accommodation, and then freshened up.
I was back at the Old Fort a little after nightfall and as I lined up to get in, as expected, I bumped into people I knew from Dar es Salaam.
A 3-day festival pass for this Zanzibar music festival is only Tsh. 10,000 for Tanzanians and, with that paid for, I was all set to discover and enjoy the festival.
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I’d been to the Old Fort many times before, mostly during the day, and had even attended the Zanzibar International Film Festival there the previous year.
Although the amphitheater was set up a lot like it had been at the Zanzibar International Film Festival, with movies showing on a large screen, the hive of activity just before the amphitheater as well as the crowd gathered in the grassy courtyard of the Fort made it look like I’d never seen it before.
Zanzibar Music Festival 2024
The 21st edition of Sauti za Busara took place between 9 February and 11 February 2024 in Stone Town.
Za Festival 2022
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Photo Credits: Jambase
Sounds great! Would love to go one year… I miss festivals. Did you find it easy enough to get somewhere to stay? The town must be heaving with visitors!
Hi Charliebeau,
You should go–it’s really lots of fun! I found it fairly easy to find a place to stay, but then again I wasn’t being very fussy. I just needed a place to lay down my head. Zanzibar is full of such small B&Bs. I do recommend booking accommodation before you get there though…but there’s lots and lots of accommodation in Stone Town. Let me know how it it goes if ever you attend a Sauti za Busara!
Biche