Darey Art Alade Pushing for a Vibrant Creative Economy

As Nigeria’s festival scene evolves into a more structured and investment-driven economy, Darey Art-Alade, the entertainer-turned-creative executive is positioning himself at the centre of that shift, designing an ecosystem that links audiences, creators and

capital across continents. Vanessa Obioha writes

The  year 2019 arguably marked a turning point for Nigeria’s entertainment industry. The scene was surging, particularly in December, when Lagos became a relentless circuit of festivals, concerts, exhibitions and fashion shows, leaving little room to catch one’s breath. What would later be christened Detty December was already taking shape, drawing Nigerians and Africans in the diaspora back home, mostly to Lagos, for a season of spectacle and indulgence.

At the same time, Nigerian music’s global appeal was accelerating, with the world beginning to embrace what is now widely known as Afrobeats. Entertainers recognised the rise of a lucrative live entertainment economy, and corporate organisations quickly aligned with it. Access Bank, for instance, sponsored the Born in Africa Festival (BAFEST), executed by Livespot360, the creative agency run by Darey Art Alade and his wife, Deola. The company also delivered one of the most talked-about events of the year, Livespot X Festival, headlined by Cardi B. It marked the rapper’s first visit to Nigeria, drawing an estimated 60,000 attendees to the sandy grounds of Eko Atlantic City in Victoria Island, Lagos.

It was not the first time Darey and his wife had hosted international acts in Nigeria. In 2013, Kim Kardashian made a brief appearance at his Love Like a Movie concert, to the chagrin of many attendees. Subsequent guests, including Kelly Rowland and Ciara, would go on to spend more time on stage.

But just as the industry was beginning to position itself as a pillar of Africa’s creative economy, COVID-19 brought everything to a halt.

“The entire live entertainment economy stopped overnight,” said Darey during a recent chat.

What the pandemic exposed, he explained, was an industry built more on momentum than structure.

“Pre-COVID, we were growing but a lot of it was built on vibes more than structure,” he explained. “Promoters figured things out event by event. Brands were spending, audiences showed up, but the underlying framework was fragile and most people didn’t know it yet. COVID made that very clear, very fast. When everything stopped, there was almost no safety net.”

What has emerged, he noted, is a more mature market.

“Audiences now expect more. They’ll pay a proper ticket price, but only if the experience justifies it. That pushed us toward the multi-format model: weaving concerts, fashion, nightlife, and industry programming into something that feels like more than a show. The diaspora piece has also hardened into something permanent. That December return is real, and it’s something we design around now.”

For Darey, the pandemic became an inflection point.

“That period forced us to ask whether we were building something with genuine structural depth or relying too heavily on the momentum of individual events. The answer required honesty and a rebuild.”

What followed was a diversification of projects. In 2022, Livespot360 ventured into TV production with the Real Housewives of Lagos and Last One Laughing Naija. It later launched the Livespot Entertarium as a permanent venue asset and introduced Entertainment Week Lagos as an industry platform. The latter has since expanded into Entertainment Week Africa (EWA) and EWA Creative Connect. Last December, Darey’s brainchild, Detty December Fest held and drew thousands to a sprawling, high-energy celebration in Lagos, with international acts like Busta Rhymes and Gunna headlining.

These pivots, he said, were not merely responses to COVID.

“They were the answer to a deeper question about what Livespot360 actually is.”

His evolution may seem surprising for an artist long celebrated for his music, but Darey’s trajectory has always extended beyond the stage. The son of late jazz icon Art Alade, he honed his craft early, moving through choirs, radio, and television before expanding into large-scale cultural production.

As Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Livespot360, he has overseen projects developed in partnership with global platforms and brands, including Amazon, Netflix, Disney, Meta, Fenty and the NBA. Together with his wife, he is building Livespot360 as an entertainment ecosystem, with Lagos positioned as its anchor.

Lagos, according to the power couple, already has the DNA of a world-class entertainment capital.

“The audience’s energy is electric, the talent pool is vast, and the cultural influence travels far beyond our borders,” said Darey. “Today, global artists are adding Lagos to their tour routes not as a symbolic stop, but as a commercially strategic one.”

However, he noted that sustained global competitiveness will require intentional investment.

“That means building more world-class venues, strengthening technical production capacity, and improving logistics systems so large-scale events can be executed with precision and efficiency.”

Deola offered another perspective, what she describes as “audience architecture.”

“Cities that dominate the global entertainment economy didn’t arrive there by chance,” she said. “They invested over decades in cultivating audiences through structured ticketing systems, sponsorship pipelines, tourism integration, and safety infrastructure. Lagos already has momentum and global curiosity on its side. The next phase is coordinated scaling.”

When government policy, private investment and creative enterprise align around culture as economic infrastructure—not just leisure—she added, Lagos can transition from a vibrant scene to a permanent fixture on the global stage.

There are signs that the Lagos State Government is beginning to recognise the economic value of the December season.

“The direction is genuinely encouraging,” he said. “Having the Federal Ministry formally back Detty December Fest 2025 wasn’t ceremonial. It signals a real shift in how the government is starting to see live entertainment.”

He believes more needs to be done, particularly around tourism infrastructure such as bundled visa facilitation, cultural passes and accommodation incentives.

“A streamlined licensing framework for large-scale events would also remove friction that competing cities simply don’t face. And better data, a rigorous way to measure what the creative economy actually generates in real time, because that’s what makes the policy case undeniable.”

On infrastructure, he sees momentum but stresses urgency.

“Ilubirin where the Detty December Fest was held showed what’s possible. The Entertarium was our own bet on what a permanent venue should look like. The trajectory is right. We just need to accelerate it, and that’s something the government and the private sector can genuinely do together.”

For both Darey and Deola, Detty December is more than a festive period; it is a high-impact economic cycle.

“Aviation sees some of its highest seasonal load factors into Lagos in December. Hotels across the Island are at or near capacity. Fashion and retail experience a concentrated surge. Logistics, security, and production all see sharp spikes in employment and revenue. In a concentrated 25-to-30 day window, you see Lagos’s clearest case study for what a year-round cultural economy could deliver.”

Beyond the headline acts, Deola pointed to the less visible layer of the festival economy, its workforce. Each production, she noted, relies on a growing network of technical and creative professionals behind the scenes.

She added that EWA has trained over 2,000 young creatives in recent years, but acknowledged that the sector remains loosely structured, with formal certification and standardised systems still in development.

The Detty December story, however, is incomplete without the diaspora. But Darey is careful not to reduce it to economics.

“It’s people coming home, reconnecting with family, with a version of themselves that is specifically Nigerian. The spending that happens is a consequence of that, not the driver.”

This is where he said Livespot360 is intentional by ensuring the experiences are worthwhile. This thinking also informs EWA Creative Connect.

“The LA and London editions weren’t about tapping a diaspora market,” added Deola. “They were about acknowledging that the African creative conversation is happening everywhere, and building infrastructure so that energy flows properly in both directions.”

Overall, the couple sees Detty December as a season with a growing global identity.

“When people outside Nigeria hear Detty December, they’re not thinking about a specific event. They’re thinking about Lagos in a particular mode: music, energy, reunion.”

“Brand identities for cities are built, not discovered,” added Deola. “Dubai didn’t happen by accident. Carnival in Rio didn’t happen by accident. The Detty December Fest is our contribution to building deliberately.”

Looking back, Darey said many of his projects were born out of frustration.

“Love Like a Movie was us saying Lagos audiences deserve better than what they’re being offered. BAFEST with Access Bank proved that corporate Nigeria and the creative economy could build something together without either side compromising. The Livespot X Festival was us saying we belong on the same stage as anyone in the world.”

One gap however, persists: infrastructure.

“Not just venues, though we desperately need more good ones. The whole system. How events get financed, how artists move across borders, how tickets reach audiences. That plumbing still doesn’t exist properly, and until it does, we’re rebuilding from scratch every time.”

Platforms like EWA Creative Connect, he said, are designed to address that gap by connecting African creators with global financiers and distributors.

“The goal is to stop talking about potential and start closing deals.”

Looking ahead, Livespot360 is already developing the next phase of EWA 2026.

“We’re designing it as a fully integrated cultural universe where fashion, music, film, technology and immersive storytelling don’t just coexist but interact,” Darey said. “Great experiences should feel like a perfectly arranged composition.”

Detty December Fest 2026 is also in motion, with plans to make it more technologically advanced and globally magnetic. Livespot X Festival is set to return as well.

“The ambition is to make Lagos a cultural capital that the world plans for year-round,” he concluded.

If the pre-COVID era of Nigeria’s festival boom were driven by instinct and improvisation, the next phase, Darey suggests, will be defined by intention.