U.S. Consulate General Lagos hosts EWA Creative Connect in honour of Entertainment Week Africa’s fifth anniversary and announces support for EWA at 5
The U.S. Consulate General Lagos has strengthened its engagement with Entertainment Week Africa (EWA), hosting EWA Creative Connect Lagos at the Consul General’s Residence in Ikoyi in honour of the platform’s fifth anniversary and committing programming support to EWA at 5, which opens in Lagos on 17 November. The engagement places Africa’s creative industries firmly within the U.S.-Nigeria relationship, alongside the trade and investment ties that have traditionally defined it.
It comes at a defining moment for Entertainment Week Africa. Five years after its founding as Entertainment Week Lagos, the platform has welcomed more than 67,000 attendees across four editions and enters its fifth under the theme Closing the Gap, an agenda built around moving African creativity from cultural influence to commercial ownership through expanded markets, a deal room, funding initiatives and industry programmes.
Convened by Livespot, Thursday’s reception drew leaders from every track of the EWA programme, alongside investors, policymakers and international partners. Among those in attendance were Kunle Afolayan, Ayo Animashaun, Clarence Peters, Kayode Kasum, Efa Iwara, Shank, Tacha, Tunde Onakoya, Titi Ogufere, Malik Afegbua, Shine Rosman, Style Infidel, Onyeka Ugwu, Adeola Diadem and Kasim Adeoti. Lagos is the third city to host EWA Creative Connect, following Los Angeles and London.
U.S. Consul General Brandon Hudspeth framed the evening as diplomacy with commercial intent. “Creative Connect is more than just an event. It is a venue where talent meets business,” he said. “This residence is more than a diplomatic venue. It is a place where we build relationships that shape the global landscape. Tonight, maybe these walls will hear the next major creative partnership beginning right here on this lawn, or the next entrepreneur who finds an investor.”
The case for that engagement rests on a market shift half a century in the making. In the 1970s, Hudspeth noted, American audiences encountered African artists such as Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba and Salif Keita mainly through radio. Today African music, film and fashion are fixtures of American radio, stages and streaming platforms, a change he credited EWA’s founders with anticipating. “They saw this earlier, and the world is now discovering what they built,” he said.
The Consulate’s support extends directly into the EWA programme. Atlanta-based creative technologist Dedran Sneed will travel to Lagos to lead a masterclass on November 18 and join the Studio to Market panel, bringing U.S. expertise into sessions focused on turning creative output into viable products and businesses.
The relationship also has deep roots. EWA co-founder Darey Art Alade took part in the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program 22 years ago, following his late father, the musician Art Alade, an earlier alumnus of the same programme. “Two generations of Alades, two generations of alumni,” Hudspeth said, describing such exchanges as connections that bind families and countries for a lifetime.
Responding on behalf of the founders and the Livespot team, and joined on stage by Deola Art Alade and Livespot Managing Director Tiwa Medubi, Darey Art Alade described the Consulate’s recognition as an acknowledgement of Africa’s creative industries, led by Nigeria, as a bridge between Nigeria and the United States. He positioned EWA at 5 as a turning point for a platform that now connects creativity with technology, business and investment.
“This fifth edition is more than a celebration of how far we’ve come. It’s a statement about where we are going,” Art Alade said. “We believe the people gathered here this evening can help shape that future, because the next chapter of Africa’s creative economy will be written through collaboration.”