FESPAM Festival Panafricain de Musique

Created in 1996 in Brazzaville and held every two years since, FESPAM, the Festival Panafricain de Musique, is one of the continent's major music gatherings, combining concerts, scholarship and trade rather than performance alone. A recent edition ran for about a week in July under a reduced-budget format, drawing musicians from twelve countries beyond Congo, a research symposium with forty-four scholars, and a traditional-instrument exhibition, though the planned MUSAF music market was canceled that year.

FESPAM, the Festival Panafricain de Musique, was created in 1996 in Brazzaville and held its first edition that year in the presence of then-president Pascal Lissouba, growing out of a 1976 Organisation of African Unity decision to dedicate a thematic festival to music across its traditional, modern and religious dimensions.