Following the groundbreaking success of the 2025 Bvndle Rewards Festival, we are now entering a scale-up phase to build a larger, bolder and globally resonant BRF 2026. The Festival MD will lead the next evolution of Africa’s biggest loyalty and lifestyle festival, shaping its creative vision, commercial growth, operational excellence, and cultural relevance across Sub-Saharan Africa. This role requires a seasoned festival leader with end-to-end experience managing large-scale events, world-class production, brand partnerships, high-level stakeholder management and P&L leadership. Candidates should demonstrate proven success in delivering events comparable in ambition and complexity to Coachella, Glastonbury, AfroNation, the Essence Festival, SXSW, or similar events. The Festival MD is responsible for ensuring the Bvndle Rewards Festival becomes a landmark global experience that attracts partners, creators, brands, tourists, and consumers, while remaining 100% sponsor-funded and aligned with the strategic objectives of the Bvndle ecosystem.
- Define and evolve BRF's long-term vision, positioning, and growth direction.
- Lead the evolution from a single-market festival to a geographically distributed festival series across:
- Nigeria (anchor market)
- Ghana
- South Africa
- Namibia
- Ensure each market activation reflects local culture while maintaining global brand consistency.
- Lead annual creative direction: themes, programming, layout, experiences, and content.
- Position BRF as the definitive platform for customer appreciation, youth culture, and brand engagement in Africa.
- Build a compelling sponsorship architecture aligned with brand objectives and festival touchpoints.
- Personally lead high-level pitches to C-suite executives across FMCG, telco, banking, tech, entertainment, retail, aviation and government.
- Secure 100% festival funding through sponsorships, partnerships and in-kind value.
- Oversee contract negotiation, value delivery, ROI measurement and long-term partner retention.
- Innovate new commercial assets: naming rights, category exclusivity, integration zones, and year-round loyalty extensions.
- Lead the full planning cycle from concept to execution.
- Oversee production design, vendor onboarding, staging, logistics, safety, ticketing architecture, gamification, and app integration.
- Establish budgets, vendor management systems, production timelines and contingency plans.
- Ensure exceptional guest experience across registration, navigation, booths, lounges, games, sessions and concerts.
- Manage creative agencies, production companies, sound/light teams, and all on-ground operators.
- Curate festival program across keynote speakers, panels, creators, performers, games and workshops.
- Secure headline acts, thought leaders and entertainers aligned with festival themes.
- Manage talent relations, contracts, stage management, scheduling and hospitality.
- Engage Lagos State, the Ministry of Tourism, security agencies, safety regulators, traffic authorities, and cultural bodies.
- Build partnerships with airlines, hotels, hospitality partners and city tourism boards.
- Ensure compliance with local and federal regulations.
- Establish global-standard risk protocols for crowd control, fire safety, medical services, security, emergency response, and incident reporting.
- Lead operational simulations, drills, audits and vendor compliance checks.
- Ensure festival safety meets best-in-class standards.
- Build a full festival budget with strict cost discipline.
- Ensure the festival stays within the approved budget while maximizing partner value.
- Oversee real-time financial tracking, procurement, revenue forecasting and post-event reconciliation.
- Work with marketing teams on festival storytelling, publicity, influencer strategy and media roll outs.
- Position BRF as a global cultural event that blends loyalty, lifestyle and youth culture.
- Manage reputational risk, crisis communication protocols and media relations.
Requirements
- Senior leadership experience in festivals, live events, entertainment, culture, or large-scale brand platforms.
- Proven ability to raise significant sponsorship revenue independently.
- Strong operational and financial management skills.
- Deep understanding of African youth culture, lifestyle, and consumer behavior.
- Experience managing complex, multi-country projects.
- Excellent stakeholder management and negotiation skills.
- Entrepreneurial mindset with institutional thinking.
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIs)
- Achieve 100% sponsor-funded festival budget.
- Minimum sponsorship value target set annually by the Festival Board.
- Personally sourced and closed sponsorship deals contributing to at least 40% of total sponsor revenue.
- Maintain a 90% sponsor renewal rate for top-tier partners.
- Deliver the festival within the approved budget.
- Reduce production cost per attendee year-on-year without compromising quality.
- Achieve attendance targets defined for BRF 2026 and ensure year-on-year audience growth.
- Increase digital engagement, app interactions, and loyalty-based participation metrics.
- Achieve a 90% attendee satisfaction score (survey-based).
- Smooth festival flow with minimal queue or delay escalations.
- Deliver production milestones on or early.
- Achieve full regulatory and compliance approval without incident.
- 95% partner benefit delivery accuracy.
- Positive partner NPS > 80 across tiers.
- Best-in-class production quality rating from the Festival Board.
- Build, lead and motivate a multidisciplinary festival team and vendor ecosystem.
- Demonstrate strong cross-functional collaboration with the Bvndle executive team.
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