Lusaka Theatre Festival

Lusaka's theatre festival tradition centres on the National Theatre Arts Association of Zambia's annual National Theatre Festival, historically staged at Lusaka Playhouse and bringing together university, college, school and community theatre groups from across the country. Recent editions, including 2025, have also rotated to other cities, most recently Ndola's Lowenthal Theatre.

Zambian theatre grew out of a deliberate blending of traditions: pre-colonial ritual and dramatic forms, kuombaka ceremonies, masquerade traditions and oral storytelling among them, mixed over the twentieth century with Western-style stage theatre introduced during the colonial period and formalised through organisations such as the Northern Rhodesian Drama Association, later the Theatre Association of Zambia.