As Addis Ababa’s urban landscape shifts, the city's music and creative scenes are evolving. As the rhythm of traditional azmari bets fades and independent underground venues rise, a resilient new creative class is building its own infrastructure and redefining the city's cultural pulse.
Beshou GedamuBeshouGedamuEthiopia-based contributor, lives in Addis Ababa
Kayn Lab Performing at Fendika at the Hyattcourtesy of Beshou/OKA
Moseb Music Center sits in a bustling part of Addis, right by the entrance of a highway. Since it first opened in 2023, it's become a space where the city’s musicians and creatives collide.
On Monday nights, musician and owner Tasew Wendim takes the stage with his washint (flute), weaving melodies with his band, who join in on the krar (lyre), masinko (single-stringed bowed lute ), and kebero (drums). Dancers give their all, and a woman with a powerhouse voice, nostalgic for the golden years, reminds listeners of the magic live music can conjure. This is what a music room in Addis can still feel like, and today such experiences are rarer than ever.
"[I]want people to come as they are and hope that they will feel safe and welcomed," Wendim tells OkayAfrica.
But for more and more music lovers, such opportunities and spaces are disappearing. I'll never forget my first time walking into Melaku Belay's Fendika Cultural Center, back in 2022, when it was still in the neighborhood of Kasanchis. Stepping inside this azmari bet (a traditional music house) felt like entering a magical space where creativity lived and breathed—a home for musicians to experiment, budding visual artists to showcase their work, and young creatives to find inspiration. While Fendika served food and alcohol, that was never the main draw. People came to listen to Kayn Lab Band on Mondays, reconnect with friends, and lose themselves in the voices of azmaris as the night stretched on. Whether your taste leaned toward experimental jazz, discovering new artists, or savoring traditional music, Fendika offered it all. As Melaku said, "Fendika is a space where creativity has broken boundaries and reached across cultures and genres." For 17 years, Fendika thrived in Kasanchis until redevelopment forced it to move.
"It's heartbreaking. It's disappointing. How do we emotionally heal from that?" Belay shares.
I've been coming to Addis for over 20 years, and I've always seen the creative scene evolve. But in the past half-decade, the scene has been shifting fast. The sounds that used to punctuate the city — live bands in hotel lobbies and restaurants, cafes with regular music, and weekly concerts — are becoming harder to find.
The Spaces That Shaped the City
To understand the scene, you have to start with the venues, the spaces where the music lived and became launch pads for a new generation of musicians.
Feben Kassaye is the co-founder of the now-closed SHIFTA, an Afro-Caribbean restaurant that once served as a community space for creative experimentation. "I created a space where I want to exist in," Feben tells OkayAfrica. SHIFTA became a home for an alternative culture; a launching pad for the underground music scene, comedy, and poetry. Rising operational costs and rent forced them to close their doors in 2023.
Yohannes Hadish, the visionary behind The Lab, an underground music experience, felt the loss when the venue closed. He credits SHIFTA for offering him a space to experiment. Hadish never set out to produce events. In fact, he doesn't call them events; he calls them episodes. The Lab centers DJs pushing musical boundaries for an audience ready to rave. He's not the only one — "There is a group of people who are hosting house parties" and experimenting with a new model.
"Shifta used to give up-and-coming artists and event organizers their space to have fun." He says the rapid change has led to a shortage of venues and higher costs for creatives to experiment. Now he can only point to three or four venues where he can host The Lab, when there used to be many more
One of those places is Venue Warehouse (nicknamed Venue), a mid-sized hall Della and Gigi opened in 2022. They opened Venue to support live music and build infrastructure. But it arrived just as the scene was changing.
“[Addis has]become less of a live music scene, and more of a DJ culture," says Gigi. When Hadish’s The Lab needed a bigger space, it moved to Venue. Now the space also hosts more community events like movie screenings, private functions, and promoter partnerships.
Also frustrated by the lack of venues and high rental costs, Robel Yohannes and Akilas Solomon started Kebelezero in February 2024. They turned a warehouse outside the Bole neighborhood into a place for live music and creativity. As Yohannes says, "We wanted Kebelezero to become a live music venue, a creative hub for people, and music workshops." Just six weeks after opening, Kebelezero lost its space due to redevelopment. The team paused to regroup and figure out their next move. “We had to recover financially and emotionally from it. We put a lot of hard work into it, and that wasn’t easy to process,” says Yohannes. But this setback was the beginning of something bigger.
“The little live music that used to exist was sponsored by beer companies. When people’s purchasing power declined, and they no longer had disposable income, the beer companies pulled out,” says Gigi.
Sponsors have pulled out, venue owners no longer own their spaces, and the economics of producing live music barely hold. Yet, people keep building.
What a Scene Needs
Music producer Ethiopian Records believes a thriving music scene needs spaces that foster creativity, growth, collaboration, and development. "Spaces run by musicians like Fendika or Moseb give me hope because they point to a solution I believe in: creatives building infrastructure, studios, and venues… that is how the underserved in Addis Ababa and Ethiopia can be served,” he says.
Yohana Sahle, co-founder of Hager Soul, created a platform that gives talent discovered on social media a chance to perform live, introducing them to new audiences that lead to other opportunities. But spaces are limited: "We need to develop our artists, offer songwriting courses."
Building New Frequencies
Fabrica is a new third space, cafe, and music space.courtesy of Fabrica
Opened in late 2025, Fabrica is a new third space, cafe, and music space. Walking in, you feel transported to an artist's haven. Co-founders Abiy Solomon and Selam Minaye designed every corner to inspire. Solomon put it simply: "Music is the centerpiece, not an afterthought. We want to contribute to the creative industry by offering a space for people to experiment."
Hanu Bet is in a compound, tucked behind a hotel, and feels more like a home than a concept store. Co-founder Haymanot Honelgn, who also designs for her brand HAMEK, opened the store in 2021 to sell their designs. It evolved into a community space. "I was inspired by Fendika. Fendika made me the person and artist that I am." While Hanu Bet's purpose is to showcase emerging local fashion brands, Haymanot also sees it as a hub for creatives. "That's why we called it bet. Bet means home."
What began as a vision for a physical space, kebelezero has evolved into experiences and concepts: kelemsounds, a series of unplugged shows at the Hilton Addis Ababa, and kebeleradio, a partnership with Sheger Studios. kebeleradio was originally meant for their space, but it morphed into "a way to create a visual archive of places that are unique to Addis by bringing DJs to play in those spaces. Since we didn't have our own space, we made the city our space," says Robel.
"I think the new city needs new music venues," Yohannes says. This new creative group is slowly building them.
As creatives reimagine new ways and spaces, Fendika found a home at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in the busy, tourist-friendly Bole neighborhood. Still, Melaku insists, "This is proof that Fendika can live anywhere and still be community-led."
