Davido, Wizkid and Tems Headline Afro Plus Fest as Afrobeats Takes Over Maryland
Davido performing at a New Year's Eve concert in Lagos, Nigeria (file photo from 2013; not from the 2026 Afro Plus Fest). Photo: Samuelejiwunmi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The second edition of Afro Plus Fest brought Davido, Tems and Wizkid to a Maryland stadium over Labour Day weekend, drawing a bigger crowd than its 2025 debut and underlining Afrobeats' growing pull in North America.
Afro Plus Fest returned for its second year over the U.S. Labour Day weekend, taking over the grounds of the Washington Commanders' stadium in Maryland from September 4 to 6 with a lineup built around three of Afrobeats' biggest names: Davido opened the festival on the first night, Tems headlined the second, and Wizkid closed out the weekend.
The bill also featured Tiwa Savage, Ayra Starr and Olamide, alongside American acts Lil Baby, Latto, Sexyy Red and Chief Keef, and Jamaican dancehall star Alkaline, reflecting organizers' push to position the festival as a meeting point between Afrobeats, hip-hop and dancehall audiences.
The inaugural 2025 edition in Washington, D.C. drew an estimated 20,000 attendees, and this year's expanded lineup and venue suggest organizers are betting on continued growth. Fans and commentators described the gathering as another marker of Afrobeats' rising prominence on the global stage, with West African stars increasingly able to headline major North American festivals in their own right rather than as guest features.
For Liberian and wider West African fans following from home, the festival is another sign of how far Afrobeats' commercial reach has extended beyond the continent since the genre's international breakout over the past decade.