The eleventh edition of the Pan-African Music Festival (Fespam) was launched on May 13 in Congo. According to the organizing committee, it will cost about 2 billion CFA. It is the result of a new policy taking into account the grievances of artists, particularly in terms of fees. This new orientation launched by Hugues Gervais Ondaye, the general commissioner of the festival, supposes that artists must have bank accounts and keep accounting records to interest banks in the cultural industry.
Indeed, the fact that artists do not have bank accounts has been a hindrance for the cultural industry until now. The representatives of Fespam therefore hope that this measure will make it possible to relaunch this industry and give it more solid economic visibility.
This year’s festival marks an important renewal for Fespam as it comes to relaunch the festivities that were planned every two years. The tenth edition of this festival dates back to July 2015.
This event is eagerly awaited by artists and music lovers but also by professionals in the music sector, who are impatiently waiting to see the economic impact of this edition on the cultural industry.
In addition, new instruments were acquired for the equipment fleet following talks with Sono Music, based in Paris, France. This will surely add a touch of originality to Fespam and give better visibility to African music.