Feels like Coachella…
On the 18th of April 2022, hundreds of Lagosian youths trooped to an expansive compound in the usually serene Parkview Estate in Ikoyi, Lagos to rage with Vogue Boys. Whether by attending previous Vogue Boys parties or watching all the promotional content that spread widely across social media throughout Easter weekend, attendees had formed a fair idea of what to expect. Nevertheless, it took just one step through the branded welcome archway to challenge what anyone thought they knew about the experience ahead.
What had started out in 2020 as invite-only pool parties created to celebrate collaborators & friends of Ladder, Lex & Booker, the emerging production company responsible for music videos like Tems’ Damages and Ckay’s Emiliana, and TV commercials like Abeg App’s The Generation & Guinness’ Women’s Day Campaign, has evolved into a festival experience complete with water park installations, mechanical bull riding, photo installations, outdoor pools, food & drinks area, merchandise sales & a beautiful stage.
Undeterred by the muddy lawns resulting from the long night of heavy rainfall before the event, attendees were sprawled across the colorfully decorated venue; eating, drinking, dancing, networking, and enjoying the various festival experiences, soundtracked by music from DJs like; Calix, Sydney Love, Tflow, SL the DJ, Family Sound System & Vivendi. Sound and artists like Chyn, BADMAN Q, PSIV, SGawd & Elmina.
The atmosphere of youthful liberty was captured most accurately by the many barefoot boys and girls dancing in the mud and raging in the mosh pits, the foreigners in attendance couldn’t help but express their pleasant surprise at the existence of Coachella-esque festival culture in Nigeria. A surprise also shared by the Nigerians in attendance.
The energy in the mosh pits was so contagious that everyone in attendance was left wet and sweaty as demanded by the Vogue Boys. The celebrity attendees were not left out of the rage. It was quite the sight, having the likes of Zlatan, Odunsi The Engine, PocoLee, Ajebo Hustlers, and FreshL shirtless and partying with hundreds of their fans in a shared moment of unbridled joy.
Vogue Boys is the experiential/lifestyle facet of Ladder, Lex & Booker. The brand is so invested in the revolution of lifestyle and experience production in Nigeria. It self-financed the $20,000 budget the event required and executed a masterpiece that showed the existence of both the market and the organizational capacity for festival culture in Nigeria.
The resounding success of the event, evidenced by the barrage of adulatory social media posts by attendees and celebratory social media posts by vendors who sold out their entire stock at the food courts, is all the encouragement necessary to keep building the skill and capacity necessary to definitively establish festival culture in Nigeria.
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