Zimbabwe’s longest-running festival of urban culture, Shoko Festival, returns for its landmark 15th edition, this September. The festival will be running under the theme “The Legacy XV.” This milestone edition celebrates 15 years of pushing artistic boundaries, celebrating creative free expression and elevating urban culture in Zimbabwe and beyond.
The festival has engaged in a groundbreaking international collaboration with UK-based Arcadia, a purpose-driven collective of artists and makers transforming remnants of conflict hardware into unifying art and iconic experiences, and In Place of War, a global organisation that supports artists, creatives, and cultural organisations in conflict and crisis zones.
This pioneering collaboration will see the roll out of the Build The Peace project at Shoko 2025, a pilot initiative involving a creative exchange between Zimbabwe and the UK that’s all about amplifying hope and community unity. A mural co-designed by young Zimbabwean and UK urban artists will be showcased at the UK’s biggest music festival Glastonbury in June 2025 and will then come to Shoko’s Peace in the Hood event in Chitungwiza in September 2025.
“This collaborative project is timely in a world where headlines across the globe are becoming more and more about war and hostility. The project is a clarion call for peace in communities, using art and culture as vehicles for positive transformation,” said Vera Chisvo, Shoko Festival coordinator.
As is tradition, the festival will be held in September, with events lined up from the 25th to the 27th September 2025, across multiple venues in Harare and Chitungwiza.
Building up to the Festival, Zimbabwe's premier civic tech gathering, The Hub UnConference, returns September 24th to the 25th, running under the theme, Decolonize the Internet. The event is set to bring together visionary thought leaders, innovators, and changemakers to challenge colonial legacies embedded in internet infrastructure, biased AI, foreign disinformation, data governance, and digital narratives.
This Shoko 2025 lineup will carry on the event's legacy of platformingbyoung voices, Zim Hip Hop, daring spoken word, edgy comedy, and alternative art.
The Shoko 2025 lineup will feature globetrotting Zimbabwean comedian, King Kandoro, "Mvura" hitmaker Bagga, Zim Hip Hop Awards Best Newcomer (2024), Runna Rulez, rising Zim Dancehall chanter, Madedido, and man of the moment, Jnr Spragga.
Tickets are already on sale online via flippingtickets.co.zw and at Moto Republik (Allan Wilson Ave, Harare). More ground-breaking acts and experiences for Shoko 2025 are set to be unveiled soon.
Advance tickets for Shoko Comedy Night going for $15 (gate price $20), while Shoko Mash Up Night advance tickets are $10 (gate price $15) and an advance Combo Ticket (both nights) being $20.
Shoko Festival is a project of Magamba Network, Africa’s trailblazing creative and digital media organisation.
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