LIPFest — Since 2015

Past Editions

A decade of poetry, performance, and conversation in Lagos. Browse each festival year, explore the programme, and download archives from past editions.

LIPFest 2024 · Edition X

The Science of Things

October 24–27, 2024 · Alliance Française de Lagos, Mike Adenuga Centre

The 10th anniversary edition explored the intersection of science, wonder, and poetic inquiry. Four days of performances, readings, panels, and workshops with poets from across Africa and the world.

VIEW EDITION →

LIPFest 2023 · Edition IX

Sanctuary

October 26–29, 2023 · Lagos
Holding space for stillness and renewal in an age of acceleration.

LIPFest 2022 · Edition VIII

Babel… A New Language

October 27–31, 2022 · Lagos
Centering the mother-tongue and the reclamation of language from colonialism.

LIPFest 2021 · Edition VII

Ancestral Imaginings

October 21–24, 2021 · Lagos
Leaning into the wisdom and vision of the old and the young, to guide us through the rubble of a pandemic. 

LIPFest 2020 · Edition VI

Love & Light and Other Clichés

October 1 – November 1, 2020 · Online
Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, a mediation on the ‘tender gravity of kindness.’

LIPFest 2019 · Edition V

A Wild Beautiful Thing

October 30 – November 3, 2019 • Lagos
Centering the mother-tongue and the reclamation of language from colonialism. language from colonialism

LIPFest 2018 · Edition IV

Ancestral Imaginings

October 21–24, 2021 · Lagos
Leaning into the wisdom and vision of the old and the young, to guide us through the rubble of a pandemic. 

LIPFest 2017 · Edition III

Bridges from Walls

November 1 – 5, 2027 · Lagos
Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, a mediation on the ‘tender gravity of kindness.’

LIPFest 2016 · Edition II

Paging the Future

October 30 – November 3, 2019 • Lagos
Centering the mother-tongue and the reclamation of language from colonialism. language from colonialism

LIPFest 2015 · Edition I

Borderless Words

October 28 – November 1, 2015 · Lagos
Leaning into the wisdom and vision of the old and the young, to guide us through the rubble of a pandemic. 

Gallery