AFRIMMA Music Fest Brings African Stars to Dallas Arts District Sept. 12

Dallas's homegrown African music awards show is getting a major upgrade. The 2026 AFRIMMA Music Fest is set for September 12, running from noon to 9 p.m. at Annette Strauss Square in the Dallas Arts District, with tickets ranging from $64 to $189.

The event follows AFRIMMA's milestone 10th anniversary celebration, according to CultureMap Dallas, and this year's edition is billed as a full-scale music festival, cultural showcase, and awards celebration rather than a single indoor ceremony. Organizers say it will bring together Africa's biggest stars, emerging talent, industry leaders, media, influencers, and fans from across the world. A pre-party dubbed Obi's House is scheduled for the night before the main event, on September 11, according to Visit Dallas.

From Indoor Ceremony to Outdoor Festival

AFRIMMA was founded in 2014 by Nigerian-born Dallas resident Anderson Obiagwu, known widely as “Big A,” who heads Big A Entertainment and publishes African Muzik Magazine, per the platform's Wikipedia entry. The inaugural ceremony was held that July at the Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts in Richardson before the event grew over the following decade into bigger Dallas venues including the House of Blues, The Bomb Factory, and the Meyerson Symphony Center. Beyond the festival, Obiagwu also runs Aso Rock Restaurant & Lounge and Ebony Food in Dallas, according to the Houston Defender's reporting on his local business footprint.

This year's move to Annette Strauss Square places the festival outdoors for the first time in the heart of downtown. The 128,000-square-foot open-air venue, designed by Foster + Partners as part of the AT&T Performing Arts Center, can host up to 2,000 seated lawn guests or as many as 5,000 attendees overall, according to its Wikipedia listing. The square sits within the AT&T Performing Arts Center's 10-acre downtown campus, which uses its open-air spaces to host a range of cultural festivals alongside resident institutions like the Dallas Opera and Dallas Theater Center, per the Dallas Arts District's own description of the complex.

Lineup Spans Afrobeats, Amapiano, and Highlife

Early performer announcements include veteran Nigerian Afropop duo Bracket, known for early crossover hits like “Yori Yori” that helped popularize modern West African pop internationally, according to African Muzik Magazine. Festival sets are expected to span Afrobeats, Amapiano, Afro-fusion, hip-hop, highlife, and African pop across multiple stages. The awards portion of AFRIMMA remains its backbone, featuring 28 distinct competition categories recognizing singers, DJs, dancers, producers, and video directors across East, West, Central, Southern, and North African regional divisions, alongside continental and diaspora honors, per Wikipedia.

Organizers note that the festival schedule and programming remain subject to change due to weather or other concerns, CultureMap Dallas reports. It's not yet clear which additional headlining artists may be added to the lineup before the September 12 date.

A Festival Riding a Demographic Wave

AFRIMMA's expansion tracks with rapid demographic shifts across North Texas. Between 2020 and 2025, the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area added 181,778 Black residents, the largest absolute increase of any metro area in the country, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates cited by BlackDemographics.com. Texas led all states in Black population growth over that span, with Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston combined gaining more than 355,000 Black residents.

Within the city itself, foreign-born residents make up 24.5% of Dallas's population, more than 325,000 people, while non-Hispanic Black residents comprise 22.5%, per 2024 American Community Survey estimates highlighted by the City of Dallas Office of Economic Development. That means nearly one in four Dallas residents was born outside the United States, a demographic reality that has helped fuel local demand for Afrobeats, Amapiano, and African pop programming.

Strauss Square is located at 2403 Flora St. in Dallas, and additional event details are available through the AT&T Performing Arts Center's event page. Tickets for the September 12 festival are priced between $64 and $189.