Image credit: Basketball Africa League
The Basketball Africa League (BAL) today announced that the league will host the first-ever BAL IN Dakar Festival, a free celebration of basketball, music and culture, on Saturday, Aug. 22 and Sunday, Aug. 23 at the Monument de la Renaissance Africaine in Dakar, Senegal.
The festival will bring together fans, players, artists and community partners to showcase the intersection of basketball and African culture through elite competition, live music, panel discussions and community initiatives. Fans can register for free tickets at BAL.torusguru.com/Dakar/festival.
“The BAL IN Dakar Festival reflects our commitment to celebrating the unique connection between basketball and African culture while making the game more accessible to fans, youth and communities across Senegal,” said BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall. “We look forward to showcasing the country’s talent, creativity and energy and the broader African basketball ecosystem throughout this first-of-its-kind experience.”
The festival will be supported by Mairie de Dakar – the municipality of Dakar – and Société des Pétroles du Sénégal (Petrosen) – Senegal’s national oil and gas company who will join BAL partners Afreximbank, Air Senegal, Wave and Woodside Energy in bringing the event to life. As part of the festival, representatives from the partners will engage in a series of panel discussions focused on the transformative power of sports, business and cross-sector collaboration in shaping the future of Senegal and the African continent.
The festival’s programming will include:
- BAL Tournoi des Quartiers Tournament and a Financial Literacy workshop presented by Wave – The semi-finals and finals will feature four men’s and four women’s teams that qualified from local tournaments held last month in Ziguinchor, Saint-Louis, Thiès and Dakar. The Financial Literacy workshop will equip the participating athletes with essential tools for economic empowerment and leadership development.
- Special Olympics Unified Game presented by Woodside – An exhibition game featuring Special Olympics athletes as part of the BAL’s commitment to inclusion and community engagement.
- Celebrity Games presented by Air Senegal – Will feature BAL players including 2025 BAL champion and Most Valuable Player (MVP) Jean-Jacques Boissy (Senegal), two-time BAL champion Solo Diabate (Côte d’Ivoire), Makhtar Gueye (Senegal), 2024 BAL champion Carlos Morais (Angola), Youssou Ndoye (Senegal) and Ayoub Nouhi (Morocco), local influencers, and the MVPs of both the men’s and women’s editions of the Côte d’Ivoire of the Tournoi des Quartiers held in Abidjan in late July.
- Coaches Clinic presented by Mairie de Dakar – Denver Nuggets player development coach, former NBA player and former Senegal Men’s National Team head coach Boniface Ndong will lead a clinic for coaches from across the country.
- A special NABU reading presented by Petrosen – As part of the BAL’s collaboration with NABU, a tech-enabled publisher of multilingual children’s books, the league will hold a special reading of NABU’s The Big Magical Basketball Game for 100 children, with each participant receiving a complimentary book.
Additionally, a variety of leading Senegalese artists will perform live during the two-day event, including Mia Guissé, DIP Doundou Guiss, Bass Thioung, El Jaz and Bilou (Saturday), and Wally Seck, Ada Boy and Ndakhte Lo (Sunday).
As part of the festival, the BAL also announced plans to refurbish four basketball courts in Senegal and one in Côte d’Ivoire later this year in support of NBA Africa’s broader commitment to build 1,000 courts across the continent.
Additional information about the BAL IN Dakar Festival is available at BAL.NBA.com.