Accra’s music is everywhere - in the trotro, the market, the church next door at full volume on a Sunday - but live music, a band on a stage in front of you, takes a little finding. This is where to look, and what you will hear.
The music, briefly
Highlife is Ghana’s own: guitar-led, horn-bright dance music that grew up in the coastal towns in the first half of the twentieth century and became the sound of independence. A good highlife band on a Friday night is still one of the best things in the city.
Hiplife put rap in Twi and Ga over highlife’s rhythms in the 1990s, and Afrobeats - the Ghanaian and Nigerian pop that now fills stadiums abroad - grew out of it and its Nigerian cousins. Afrobeats and amapiano are what the clubs play; the live rooms are where highlife, jazz, soul and gospel live.
Gospel is among the biggest music in the country by audience, and the most heard live: every large church has a band, and a gospel concert fills an arena.
— Listen to Accra’s radio stations live
Where to hear a band
Most live music is in bars and restaurants, on set nights. The rooms below are from the list behind the night out planner; check the night before you go, because a band night moves more easily than a bar.
- Jamestown Cafe & ArchiAfrica, Jamestown - Set inside a restored colonial warehouse on High Street. Celebrates Ga coastal heritage with live acoustic highlife, photography, and coastal sea breezes. The cheapest good night out on this page, in the oldest part of the city.
- Zen Garden, Labone - Lush tropical sanctuary in Labone known for weekly live bands, soul music sessions, artisanal pizzas, and relaxed bohemian ambiance.
- Republic Bar & Grill, Osu - Soul of Osu nightlife. Traditional craft spirits fused with Ghanaian rhythm, street-side tables, and legendary live jam sessions.
- Kona Cafe & Grill, Osu - Two-story open wooden deck right in the center of Oxford Street. Famous for claypot palm wine, spicy grilled goat meat, and energetic Afrobeats.
- Front/Back, Osu - Bespoke cultural club celebrating contemporary African art, curated cocktails, vinyl sessions, and world-class culinary pop-ups.
Hotels and the larger restaurants put on jazz and highlife bands at weekend dinners, and the cultural centres and embassies’ arts programmes - the Alliance Française and the Goethe-Institut among them - run concerts through the year, often free or nearly.
— Bars in Accra
— Plan a night with live music
The big nights
Chale Wote, the street art festival in James Town, is music as much as art: stages and sound systems on the streets for days. It is usually in late August.
Telecel Ghana Music Awards, Ghana’s biggest music awards: usually May, at Accra International Conference Centre. The national music awards, and the argument the whole country has afterwards.
December is when the big concerts and festivals come - the diaspora is home, the artists are home, and there is a show most nights.
Concerts at the big venues - the National Theatre, the Accra International Conference Centre and the stadiums - are announced on the artists’ and promoters’ own pages first, and tickets sell through the Ghanaian ticketing sites and mobile money.
Going to a show
- Start late, finish later. A concert billed for the evening rarely starts on time, and the headliner comes on last, often well after midnight.
- Buy tickets from the promoter’s own link or a known ticketing site. Tickets sold in comments and direct messages are a favourite scam. — Online fraud, and how to avoid it
- Plan the ride home before it ends. A stadium emptying at two in the morning means every ride-hailing car in the city is booked. — Getting around Accra
If you play
Open mics and jam sessions are how most musicians in Accra find a band and a room. The bars above are the place to ask; the band nights are run by people who know who is looking for a bassist.
Running a gig
If you are putting on a concert, a band night or a festival in Accra, send it to the events calendar. It is free, and a person checks it before it is listed.
— List your event
— How to get your event listed and seen
The venues on this page come from the same list as the night out planner, last checked on 2026-09-14.