Braamfontein’s digital arts circuit powers up with immersive domes, XR showcases, an AI bootcamp, and continent-wide collaborations, 7–12 October.
Courtesy of Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival.
Johannesburg’s Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival returns from 7 to 12 October with Power Surge, a program that positions African creators at the centre of today’s digital transformation. Now in its twelfth edition, Fak’ugesi, headquartered at the Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct, convenes artists, technologists, storytellers, researchers, and creative entrepreneurs to prototype new systems, exchange knowledge, and build sustainable digital economies rooted in African contexts.
This year’s edition activates Braamfontein as a live circuit of venues and public nodes. Core programming spans immersive media, game and XR showcases, a multi-stop dome experience, public talks, labs, and professional forums. The festival highlights the convergence of ancestral knowledge with contemporary technologies, climate-aware design, and equitable innovation models that prioritise access, skills development, and intercontinental exchange.
Program highlights
The Surge Experience
A three-stop route anchors the public program: the fulldome series at the Wits Anglo American Digital Dome; Origins Centre presentations on ancestral intelligence and the “Original Creative Explosion”; and Future Forward XR and VR immersions at Tshimologong.
Afrique Creative 3
An Agence Française de Développement-supported accelerator convening 15 creative entrepreneurs from 10 countries for a bootcamp and showcase at Fak’ugesiPRO 2025.
Immersive Africa: Bridging Continents Through Digital Creativity
Powered by EUNIC’s Spaces of Culture, the dome program features new fulldome commissions by African, European, and South American creators. The AfriVerse: Step Inside Our Stories experience invites audiences into three curated worlds: an Art Edition of synesthetic image and sound, an Environmental Edition focused on planetary rhythms and ecologies, and Cosmosceno, a speculative journey across space and imagination.
Afropean Intelligence Challenge
A five-day AI bootcamp exploring Afrocentric approaches to artificial intelligence, concluding with the Entropy symposium.
Three Fields
A South Africa, India, and UK XR collaboration on food sustainability and indigenous practices.
Fak’ugesi Awards
Recognition across animation, gaming, XR, and design, profiling emerging and established digital creators.
Showcases and Conference
A campus-wide exhibition and demo floor for games, XR, and interactive projects, alongside a conference program with African and international speakers.
Why now
Fak’ugesi situates African digital creativity within demographic and economic realities that are reshaping the global technology landscape. With one of the world’s youngest populations and rapid growth in urban areas and the creative industries, the continent is not only adopting tools but also defining future use cases, aesthetics, and infrastructures. The 2025 edition highlights practical routes to market, ethical frameworks for AI and immersive media, as well as cross-regional production models that connect studios, collectives, and institutions.
Access and participation
Fak’ugesi welcomes students, independent practitioners, studios, cultural organisations, and the broader public. The festival’s mix of paid and free events is designed to support skill sharing and audience development while profiling new work. Ticketing is available via Quicket. Program details and venue maps will be published through Fak’ugesi and Tshimologong channels ahead of opening.
Fak’ugesi 2025 takes place from 7 to 12 October in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, spanning the Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct and partner venues. For more information, please visit fakugesi.co.za.
