The festival that sold out with 20,000 fans last year is coming back six times bigger. Afro Plus Fest returns to the DMV this Labor Day Weekend with a projected 120,000 attendees and a lineup that spans Afrobeats, dancehall, amapiano, soca, hip-hop, and R&B across three full days.
Wizkid, Davido, Tems, Ayra Starr, and Alkaline headline the bill, but the supporting cast is just as deep. Latto, Sexyy Red, Lil Baby, Chief Keef, Adekunle Gold, Olamide, Tiwa Savage, Sarkodie, and Odeal are all on the ticket, spread across two stages at the Northwest Stadium Complex in Landover, Maryland.
This year’s event runs September 4 through September 6, a full three-day stretch after the festival expanded from its original one-day format.
Last year’s run at the RFK Festival Grounds generated a $10 million boost to the local economy, and organizers are projecting that number could climb close to $60 million this time around.
Founder and Executive Producer Michael Awosanya was direct about the philosophy behind the programming. “We packed this weekend so full that the goal is for you not to be able to finish the festival in one day,” he said. You could come all three days and still miss something. We built it for the fans first.”
That fan-first approach goes beyond the music. The grounds will feature over 100 brand activations, 125 food vendors serving global cuisine, a carnival with rides and games, an interactive basketball court, art installations, beauty and fashion showcases, wellness hubs, and a marketplace spotlighting Black-owned and DMV-based businesses. It is less a festival and more a full cultural footprint.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore publicly backed the event, calling it a homecoming of sorts. “Afro Plus Fest is a homecoming for African communities across our state and across the country to come together and celebrate the bonds that connect us,” Moore said.
He also made a point to shout out the local performers on the bill, urging attendees to show love to the “Made in DMV” acts sharing the stage with the international headliners.
The PR side of the story has its own arc worth following. Asma Amani, whose agency has been representing the festival since its first year, reflected on what it has meant to grow alongside the event. “I started Asma Amani PR two summers ago,” she wrote on Instagram.
“This is year two representing Afro Plus Fest, an agency and a festival growing up side by side, its own kind of universal alignment.”
Her comments point to how the festival has become a launchpad not just for artists but for the broader ecosystem of Black creative and media professionals building around it.
The jump from 20,000 to a projected 120,000 attendees is not a small thing, and it raises real questions about logistics, experience, and whether the energy of a more intimate first edition can survive the scale-up. Festivals that grow fast do not always grow well, and fans who were there in year one will be watching closely.
Gates open one hour before performances each day, with shows kicking off at 2 PM. The Northwest Stadium Complex is accessible via Morgan Boulevard Station on WMATA’s Blue and Silver Lines, and on-site parking passes start at $50 through SeatGeek.
Tickets across multiple tiers, including single-day general admission and three-day passes up to Front of Stage, are still available but described as limited.
With acts pulling from Lagos, Kingston, Atlanta, Chicago, and right across the DMV, the lineup alone reflects how genuinely global the conversation around Black music has become in 2026.
