02 · GALLERY
Five frames.
Somewhere on the Kenyan coast, under constellations older than history, a thousand bodies dance in the red dust and salt air. The bass rolls through the baobabs. Incense and sweat rise like prayer. It is not hedonism, it is rebirth. A fever dream of fire, trance, and ancestral rhythm, where the boundaries between earth, sea, and sound disappear. By dawn, you have forgotten what year it is, and it does not matter.
Stay until sunrise by the baobab grove. The light filters through the trees like music made visible.
More than a festival, a ritual welcoming the new year through community, creativity, and consciousness.
Annual, 28 December to 1 January. Five days, the Beneath the Baobabs site north of Mombasa. Day three (30 December) is the deepest programming, day five (New Year's Day) is the dawn closing.
Annual New Year week. Camping on site, gates open 28 Dec, programme runs daily 14:00 to dawn. Sister event Yemaya runs earlier in the year on the same coast.
Fly Mombasa (MBA), then drive 90 minutes north along the coast road to Kilifi. Festival shuttles run from Mombasa airport on the opening day. The Beneath the Baobabs site is signposted from Kilifi town.