Lagos Shopping Festival: Adekunle Gold, Ayo Maff thrill teeming crowd

Afrobeats stars Adekunle Gold and Ayo Maff headlined the opening night of the inaugural Lagos Shopping Festival, touted as Africa’s largest 72-hour non-stop shopping experience, ongoing at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena in Onikan, Lagos.

While Adekunle Gold performed a medley of his old and new hits, such as Sade, Party No dey stop, and Ogaranya, rave of the moment, Ayo Maff sang some of his popular tracks, like ‘Vex for You’, ‘Dealer’, and ‘Street Anthem’.

The festival’s first day lived up to its billing; fun-seekers in their numbers, as advertised, were in attendance at the gathering, which was a colourful blend of commerce, music, innovation, and creativity, following its flag-off by the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu.

Other highlights included dancing and singing competitions, with the winners adjudged by the audience receiving cash gifts.

At the event, Governor Sanwo-Olu described the LSF as a history-making festival of back-to-back shopping, fun, and entertainment, reaffirming Lagos state’s commitment to growing small businesses and the entertainment industry.

“This is the first of its kind, and this event is made to bring shoppers with MSMEs, innovators, entertainers, the creative industry, the food industry, and everybody,” said Mr Sanwo-Olu.

‘‘For the next three days, we are meant to all come together, enjoy good food, good music, sales at discounted market prices, shopping at the highest level, and just general entertainment with the creativity of Lagos,” the governor added.

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He assured all fun-seekers, buyers, and sellers of their safety, saying they were in a safe, secure, and peaceful environment. He also commended all the local and small businesses at the festival and urged Lagosians and Nigerians to patronise them always.

On Christmas Day, the final day of the festival, Wande Coal, BNXN, and Teni are expected to send the crowd wild, with support from DJ Neptune and DJ Six Seven.

The Lagos Shopping Festival, powered by the Lagos State Government in collaboration with Chain Reactions Africa, is supported by leading brands, including Zenith Bank, Tolaram Group, First Bank, and Guinness.