Sauti za Busara Music Festival

Sauti za Busara — 'Sounds of Wisdom' in Swahili — is East Africa's premier traditional and world music festival. Held at the Old Fort in the heart of Stone Town, it brings together musicians from across Tanzania, East Africa, and the Indian Ocean world for three nights of extraordinary performance. Taarab, beni, ngoma, Swahili jazz, and contemporary East African sounds fill the fort's open courtyard under a sky full of stars.

The setting makes the music. The Old Fort was built in the late 17th century and its thick coral-stone walls have absorbed three centuries of Zanzibar's history. During Busara, they hold a different kind of energy — the audience sits on the courtyard ground or stands at the edge of the stage, close enough to feel the bass of the drums in their chest. There are no barriers between the crowd and the performance. Everything is immediate and alive.

The festival has an explicitly community-driven ethos — most of the performers are from East Africa and the wider Indian Ocean region, the prices are kept affordable for local attendees, and the programming celebrates the breadth of Swahili cultural heritage. For visitors, it is the most immersive single evening you can spend in Stone Town.