Ghana Festivals

The Dagomba fire festival — family heads carry blazing torches through the streets at night to drive away evil spirits and usher in the new year.

The Bono festival of free speech — for one week citizens may openly criticise their chiefs without consequence, while fire-eaters and street processions fill the town.

Ghana's Easter adventure — the Kwahu Plateau comes alive with tandem paragliding from Odweanoma Mountain, cave hikes, zip-lining, street carnivals, and open-air concerts over Easter weekend.

Deer-hunt festival held on the first weekend of May in Winneba — two rival groups race to catch a live deer bare-handed.

Biennial festival connecting the African diaspora with Ghana's slave-trade heritage — concerts, drama, and remembrance walks.

The 'opening of the water' — Fante fishermen cast the first nets of the season at Elmina's Benya Lagoon as chiefs in palanquins watch from the shore.

The 'Hooting at Hunger' harvest festival — Ga families share palm nut soup, pour libations, and call the ancestors home.

Accra's annual street art explosion in Jamestown — murals, performances, food, and a carnival of creative energy.

Kpetoe's annual celebration of Volta Region kente — the Agotime people's distinct weaving tradition on full display, with chiefs in hand-woven regalia and master weavers at their looms.

Ghana's harvest thanksgiving — new yams blessed, ancestral stools fed, and the bounty of the earth celebrated across Akan communities from Techiman to Kumasi.

A month-long harvest and purification festival that travels through Ahanta and Nzema towns — ancestral rites, all-night drumming, and the ceremonial eating of new yam.

Royal Ashanti purification festival — the Asantehene pours libations, ancestral stools are carried in procession, and the nation renews itself.

The harvest thanksgiving of Ho and the Asogli State — chiefs in full Ewe regalia, mountains of new yam, agbadza dancing, and a grand durbar that draws the whole Volta Region to the capital.

The grandest Adae of the Ashanti year — the Asantehene receives homage on the Golden Stool, and the nation gathers at Manhyia for royal drumming and kente regalia.

The millet harvest festival of the Krobo people — women and girls dressed in exquisite glass-bead jewellery, ancestral rites on Krobo Mountain, and a spectacular outdoor durbar.

The harvest and purification festival of the Sisala people — gyil xylophone music, acrobatic dances, and a community renewed after the long farming season.

The 'opening of the gate' — Anlo-Ewe commemorate their migration from Notsie with drumming, regalia, and ancestral rites in Anloga.

The warrior festival of the Builsa — mock battles re-enact the community's fierce defence against slave raiders, with funeral rites for the fallen and a defiant all-night celebration.

The grandest festival of northern Ghana — the paramount chiefs of Dagbon, Mamprugu, and Gonja parade on horseback in full regalia to celebrate the Prophet Muhammad's birth.

Accra's month-long party season — the diaspora comes home, world-class artists perform, and the city doesn't sleep from 1 to 31 December.