Summerhall celebrates the wide spectrum of African arts and culture this weekend as AfriFest arrives in Edinburgh. With music drawn from different corners of the African diaspora, the festival will celebrate the input black performers have made to the Scottish cultural landscape. Best of all, events are free!

Among the big live performers will be the master kora player Seckou Keita from Senegal, whose albums have topped European music charts, and whose recent collaboration with welsh harpist Catrin Finch garnered awards from magazines fRoots and Songlines and at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

Other highlights include Samba Sene & Diwan, original Bhundu Boy Rise Kagona and the Jit Jive Band, and Makossa. To emphasise just how broad the festival reaches, performers taking part come from Botswana, Liberia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. All in all, quite a spread.

Scotland’s African film festival, Africa in Motion, will be curating a film programme, while DJs will be rounding off each night with a club set. Visitors to Summerhall will also be able to take part themselves. Experienced teachers including Mockolo Sawane (Casamance) and Dougie Hudson (Drumergy) will be on hand to help lead people in African drumming and dance.

Full details of the Festival can be found on the Festival’s Facebook and eventbrite pages.