August 11, 2025
Chief Operating Officer Akosua Ayima told press, “there’s enough space for everybody. So everyone should pull up”
AfroFuture Detroit is set to make its highly anticipated U.S. debut August 16–17 at Bedrock’s Douglass Site, promising a weekend that fuses music, food, fashion, and community connection — with a full week of events leading up to the main festival. Chief Operating Officer Akosua Ayim and Bedrock’s director of business development, Addofio Addo, opened up to the Detroit Free Press about the event.
Founded in 2017 in Accra, Ghana, AfroFuture has become known for celebrating the African diaspora through large-scale cultural experiences. Chief Operating Officer Akosua Ayim said Detroit was a natural choice for the festival’s U.S. launch.
“We chose Detroit because of the richness of Black culture, the influence that Detroit has on the world when it comes to music, and just the innovation and creativity of the city,” she explained. “AfroFuture is a cultural entertainment platform with the goal of really bridging the gap of the diaspora from the continent with the rest of the world.”
The two-day festival will feature a lineup of international stars including Asake, Ludmilla, Davido, Kaytranada, and Gims, alongside an eclectic mix of DJs and performers. But organizers emphasize that the event is much more than a concert.
In the week leading up to AfroFuture, Detroiters can participate in free community activities such as restaurant and bar crawls, pitch competitions, film screenings, spoken word performances, and panel discussions. “We don’t want to just show up and do a festival and leave,” Ayim said. “We really want to make sure that we’re touching on a lot of important facets for people from Detroit.”
Addofio Addo, Bedrock’s director of business development, described AfroFuture as “more than just a concert,” calling it a “lifestyle experience” that blends music, art, food, and fashion with a marketplace showcasing vendors from across the diaspora. “You’re going to get a showstopping experience onstage, but you’re also going to get that same feeling onsite,” Addo said.
The festival has previously drawn crowds of more than 30,000 in Ghana, and organizers expect a similarly global turnout in Detroit. AfroFuture performances will span genres including Afrobeats, Amapiano, hip-hop, and electronic music. Attendees, Addo promised, will leave “uplifted in so many special ways — through music, through scent, through food, through fashion, through conversation.”
“There’s enough space for everybody,” Ayim added. “So everyone should pull up!”
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