What It’s Like To … Run Kenya’s Most Popular Music Festival

For 16 years, Blankets & Wine has been one of East Africa’s most beloved festivals, shaping Nairobi’s live music scene and inspiring audiences across the region. Created by Muthoni the Drummer Queen — a musician, innovator, and cultural entrepreneur — the festival was envisioned as more than just a concert series. It was built as a platform to nurture artists, create community, and set a new standard for live music in Kenya.

Few people know this better than Justine Mbugua. As Head of Productions at Blankets & Wine and its parent company, Good Times Entertainment, Mbugua has spent 13 of the festival’s 16 years behind the scenes. She has worked every role imaginable: from selling tickets and running marketing campaigns to designing stages, coordinating logistics, booking artists, leading teams, and securing business partnerships. Today, she oversees the production and management of the festival, while also helping steer training programs for artists and event professionals, as well as supporting outside organizations with end-to-end event production.

Under her leadership, Blankets & Wine has expanded beyond Kenya, staging editions in Uganda and Rwanda, and most recently, making its UK debut in Bradford on September 6, 2025, as part of the Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture programme and the UK/Kenya Season. And now, the festival is preparing for one of its biggest shows yet, with Grammy Award–winning singer Tems set to headline the Nairobi edition on September 28.

For Mbuguia, working in event production, and especially with the Blankets & Wine brand, has always been about more than putting on shows. 

“It wasn’t just about putting on an event to sell tickets and make some money. It was about building the industry and creating an ecosystem for artists,” she tells OkayAfrica. “We were trailblazing in the industry, and I felt this was unique enough to put all my energy into.”

She shares her story with OkayAfrica, reflecting on how she grew from an eager intern to one of East Africa’s most influential festival producers, and what it takes to keep a cultural institution like Blankets & Wine alive.

Justine Mbugua: I have a profound love for music. That was where it started. Being in spaces where artists could perform, grow, and really exhale into their craft. That love is what drew me into this work.

I was in my early twenties when I met Muthoni the Drummer Queen. I had been selling CDs at major events for artists like Eric Wainaina and Muthoni herself. At a Blankets & Wine show in 2011, the team needed help with ticketing, so I jumped in. Muthoni later said the company was expanding, and I agreed to join as an intern.

I was still in university, so I used to juggle going to the office and going to school. What hooked me was the grand vision of the brand. It wasn’t about putting on a show just to sell tickets; it was about building an ecosystem for artists. At the time, most concerts in Nairobi were mainstream, nighttime shows. There were no Sunday daytime festivals. Blankets & Wine was trailblazing, and I felt it was unique enough to put all my energy into.

My first Blankets & Wine event as an intern was in 2012. We had secured our first major sponsorship, we moved to a bigger venue, and brought in our first international artist in 2012. Up until then, the lineup had been mostly Kenyan artists. From that point, things started to shift. I began working directly with artists, handling bookings, arranging riders, and managing their needs. For me, still a university student, it was a fascinating crash course in the industry.

I was still in university studying biochemistry, so I didn’t have much to lose. I was excited to commit and see where it could go. It took me a while to recognize this could be my career. At one point, I gave myself a deadline by 2020. I thought I’d step away and pursue a different career path, working in a lab. But then COVID happened, and everything shifted. The pandemic reminded me how unpredictable life is. If the world could change overnight, why not keep doing the thing I enjoyed most? That’s when I really committed.

In the 13 years since I joined, I’ve done almost every job within the team… social media, branding, marketing, partnerships. Having worked across these roles prepared me for leadership. It gave me a deep understanding of how every part of the festival operates and [helped me] build trust with the team. I lead by example.

Abundance and resilience have been the skills I’ve leaned on the most. In this business, so much is trial and error. There was no school for this. Even for Muthoni, there was no manual on how to run a festival. What guided us instead was intention. We asked ourselves: what kind of festival did we want to create? What kind of experience should artists have? If we went to an event, how would we want to be treated?

One of our core values is ‘user first,’ and for us, the users are both the audience and the artists. That focus on experience is what sets us apart. Too many organizers cut corners to save costs, but we’ve always believed in prioritizing the quality of the experience.

Blankets is a quarterly festival, which means we’re always planning. After every edition, we review what worked and what didn’t. About three months before the next event, we focus on curation, selecting the lineup, and planning marketing. I often say we’re in constant production. Each edition builds on the last. The challenge isn’t reinventing, but refining.

The week before a festival is always the hardest. We start setup on Monday, building installations and finalizing production. From that point, it’s all hands on deck. My job is to be on the ground, checking every detail from stage placement to sound and logistics. That week, I barely sleep. I’m on the phone from 7 a.m. until late at night, troubleshooting. By Saturday, I’m running on three hours of sleep, but still at the festival grounds at 3 a.m. for final checks.

It’s adrenaline mixed with anxiety. You want everything to go smoothly, and that requires complete teamwork. Our crew is incredible, staying until 3 a.m., back again by 9 a.m., and still pushing until late Sunday night. After the festival ends, we’re often there until 4 a.m. closing up.

Of course, there are challenges. Suppliers miss deadlines, last-minute issues pop up, and sometimes I have to be the ‘bad guy’ to keep things moving. And because the industry is so male-dominated, there are times when I feel undermined or have to fight harder to be taken seriously. It can be frustrating, but resilience is part of the job.

I often say that even though I work at Blankets, I’ve never actually attended the events as a fan. From the start, it’s been work. I’ve never sat down and enjoyed a full performance. What I get are glimpses: walking past a stage and seeing the crowd lost in the music, or standing on stage and realizing, this is what we built. Those moments keep me going.

Even when budgets are tight or things don’t go as planned, seeing people laugh, dance, and connect reminds me the mission is still being fulfilled. Artists come off stage saying it was the best experience they’ve had. Some even write to us afterward, grateful just to have been treated with respect. That feedback means everything.

We’ve also been driven by a desire to raise the industry to international standards. Having attended festivals abroad, we wanted to bring that level of professionalism back to Kenya. This is about helping grow an entire industry.

We have seen many artists grow. Take, for example, Sauti Sol. I remember booking Sauti Sol when they were still starting out, and now they’re giants in the industry. There’s old footage of Sauti Sol performing at Blankets on our YouTube page. It’s not that Blankets created that success, but I feel proud knowing we were part of the journey.

When everything clicks, the energy is beautiful. But you also have to detach from the lows. If you carried every setback, you’d never wake up the next day ready to try again. You have to sit in the good moments and let them fuel you.

I’ve also learned to be quick-thinking and solution-driven. Something is always going wrong in events, and if you sit in the problem, it won’t get solved. My instinct is always to find a way forward. That mindset is critical.

That’s why canceling a show is one of the hardest calls we’ve ever made. It’s rare. We have only done it twice in our history. The most recent time [during the anti-government protests], we worked with advisors and the team for more than a week before deciding. We had to weigh every angle: the audience, the artists, our partners, and the long-term health of the brand. Ultimately, we chose sustainability. Protecting the bigger picture mattered more than pushing through at any cost.

Our mission has always been bigger than Kenya. That’s why we first expanded into Uganda, then Rwanda. More recently, through the British Council’s UK/Kenya Season, we were able to showcase Kenyan talent internationally [at our first event in Bradford]. That opportunity aligned perfectly with our vision of exporting culture.

Now, we’re exploring lighter models of expansion. Finding the right partners is key, but our mission remains the same: to give Kenyan artists global visibility.

I’ve seen Blankets grow from 300 people to tens of thousands. What excites me most now is the generational shift. Gen Z is coming in and making the festival their own. I’m also excited about new artists stepping onto our stage, and about the team taking on more leadership. At some point, I’d love to step back and watch the next generation carry it forward.

For anyone interested in this industry, my advice is simple: put yourself in the room. Volunteer, intern, take on small roles like ticketing. Those experiences build the foundation for a career. There’s a future here if you’re willing to work hard, stay curious, and commit. That’s how I started, and it’s what got me here.