The sustainable growth and meaningful impact achieved by MTN Bushfire over its 19-year legacy is largely attributed to the festival’s intentional pursuit for collaborative opportunities and involvements in creative industry initiatives.
This is the spirit behind MTN Bushfire’s participation in the Mozambique Music Meeting (MMM) taking place in Maputo from 4 to 8 March, 2026.
As the first showcase festival in Mozambique, MMM also doubles up as a music market staged annually to promote Mozambican, regional and Lusophone music while creating opportunities for artists and industry professionals to connect with global networks. By combining live showcases, conference sessions, workshops and networking platforms, MMM serves as a bridge between local artists and international music decisionmakers.
Representing MTN Bushfire is Co-Founding Festival Director, Jiggs Thorne, who will join a multicultural delegation of fellow arts industry professionals ranging from festival directors, programmers, agents, bookers and specialised media. MTN Bushfire’s participation underscores the festival’s commitment to strengthening regional arts ecosystems and expanding cultural mobility across Africa and beyond.
“MMM provides an important platform for dialogue and collaboration within the African music industry,” expressed Thorne. “For MTN Bushfire, participating in gatherings like this is about building meaningful partnerships, supporting artist mobility, and contributing to a stronger, more interconnected creative sector,” he said.
During the gathering, Thorne will take part in networking sessions and attend music showcases with the aim to discover Mozambique’s brightest talent. A key focus will be building partnerships that promote Mozambican artists and deepen cultural ties between Eswatini and Mozambique.
With a long, thriving history of showcasing Mozambique’s artistic brilliance on the MTN Bushfire stages and arts development programmes, the festival also records high attendance from Mozambican festivalgoers and welcomes a large audience of Mozambican attendees, artisans and Lusophone artists every year.
Thorne will also participate in a podcast interview Radio Mozambique’s Maputo Corridor Radio alongside other industry stakeholders. This will be an opportunity to unpack the newly launched Arts Incubator Corridor alongside X-Hub Founder and Director, Paulo Chibanga.
As a festival dedicated to diversity and cultural dialogue, MTN Bushfire sees MMM as an important platform for supporting the sustainable growth of Mozambique’s cultural scene while contributing to broader conversations about the future of the African music industry.
