The Vic Falls Carnival was a multi-day African music festival at Victoria Falls. The first decision is which edition and which side of the river you are researching, because the timing, the host country and the ticket prices all changed over the years.
This page is the overview. For the edition-by-edition timeline, the vic falls carnival history page goes deeper. The sections below set out the decisions first, then the documented record behind each one.
Choose your starting point
Three criteria sort most questions about this festival. The first is era. The event moved from a New Year slot to a standalone April slot. The second is country. The festival was hosted in Zimbabwe, and a Zambian leg was added later. The third is purpose. A ticket buyer, a music fan and someone planning a trip around the Zambezi each need different information. Pick the branch that matches your question.
- You need to know where it happened. Start with the vic falls carnival venue page. The answer depends on the year, and the Zimbabwe and Zambia legs used different hotels.
- You want to understand the format. Read how did vic falls carnival work. It covers the multi-day structure, the opening event and the final night.
- You are comparing costs. Use vic falls carnival ticket prices for the pass types, and the general tickets page for how entry was organised.
- You are interested in the Zambian side. The destination livingstone page explains the leg held in Livingstone.
- You want something to do beyond the stage. The activities page collects the daytime and side-event options.
If you are not sure which branch applies, read the rest of this page in order. It follows the questions people ask most: what the festival was, when it ran, who played, where it was held, how entry worked and whether it is still going.
What the festival was
The Vic Falls Carnival was a music festival built around live music and DJ sets in the Victoria Falls area of the Zambezi valley. One event listing described it as hosted at one of the Seven Wonders of the World, which sums up its pitch. The festival came with a setting that few other festivals can match, and promoters leaned on that.
The best-documented early edition ran for three days. Wild Horizons, a Victoria Falls tourism operator, describes the 2014 festival as drawing thousands of tourists to the town for a 3 day festival. That draw is why the event matters beyond the music. It filled a stretch of the calendar with visitors, and many of them combined the festival with a wider trip to the falls and the river.
The country question has a clear answer for most of the festival’s history. Oasis Overland, a tour operator that sold trips around the event, states that the Vic Falls Carnival is hosted in Zimbabwe. The Zambian leg, covered below, was a later addition rather than the original home.
New Year timing and the shift to April
The festival’s first identity was a New Year event. The 2014 edition is the clearest example in the record. According to Wild Horizons, the festivities commenced on 29 December 2014 and the final day of the festival was held on New Year’s Eve. That placed the midnight countdown at the end of the run, not the start. For anyone wanting a New Year’s Eve party at the falls, that was the version to look at.
The same account puts the New Year’s Eve crowd at 5000+ people. It adds that they were undeterred by showers of warm rain. The detail is useful for planning. A festival timed for the turn of the year fell in the southern African rainy season, so warm rain was part of the picture.
The New Year slot did not last. Oasis Overland notes that the carnival was previously held over the New Year’s period but was changed to its own standalone date. Victoria Falls Guide confirms the direction of travel, stating that the carnival will now take place every year in April.
This split is the most useful dividing line for readers. Treat the New Year-era and April-era editions as two different events. The weather, the crowd and the travel logistics all differ. An account of a late-December festival tells you little about an April one, and the reverse is also true. If a source mentions the countdown or midnight fireworks, it is almost certainly describing the earlier era.
Edition record: the April era
The April-era editions are documented from the post-pandemic return. Victoria Falls Guide describes the first post-Covid carnival in 2022 as held at a new venue, the Elephant Hills Resort. That edition is the starting point for the later format, and the new venue was part of the change.
The 2023 edition is better documented. Oasis Overland gives the dates as 28-30 April 2023 at the Elephant Hills Resort, right next to the Zambezi River. The Zambian leg ran alongside it. According to Victoria Falls Guide, the carnival dates for that leg were the 28th and 30th, with the Mosi Day of Thunder on the 29th.
Read those dates carefully. The Zimbabwe side was a continuous three-day run. The Zambian leg had a gap in the middle, filled by a separate event. A visitor wanting both would have had to plan the moves between the two sides, and that connects to the ticket structures covered below.
- First post-Covid edition: 2022, at Elephant Hills Resort.
- Dual-country edition: 2023, with Zimbabwe and Zambia legs in the same April weekend.
The vic falls carnival history page is where the full timeline is kept, so use it for wider year-by-year context. This overview limits itself to the editions with a documented record.
Artists and lineups
Lineups were a mix of regional heritage acts and dance-floor acts. The 2014 edition, as Wild Horizons reports it, shows that range clearly.
- Goldfish. The Cape Town band-and-DJ duo were the festival headliners for the New Year.
- Oliver ‘Tuku’ Mtukudzi. The Zimbabwean folk legend attracted thousands of followers to the carnival.
- Toby2Shoes. The Capetonian performer played the opening event, a party-train journey, for 500+ ticket holders.
- Rob Macson. The Harare DJ was one of the local and international DJs on the bill.
The pairing of a folk elder with a Cape Town dance act shows who the festival was built for. It courted a Zimbabwean audience with a home-grown legend and a regional, cross-border party crowd with electronic acts. A visitor who liked one half of that line-up did not necessarily like the other, so it is worth checking which acts you actually want to see before choosing an edition.
Individual acts have their own pages on this site. Read oliver mtukudzi vic falls carnival for the folk headliner. Other profiles include jeremy loops vic falls carnival, mango groove vic falls carnival and the kiffness vic falls carnival. Use those pages when a particular performer is what you are trying to place.
Treat any lineup claim as edition-specific. An act listed at one edition does not imply an appearance at another. When a lineup is not recorded for a year, the safe approach is to leave it blank rather than assume a repeat bill.
Where it was held: Zimbabwe and Zambia
The straight answer to the country question is that the festival was held in Zimbabwe at Victoria Falls, with a Zambian leg added in 2023. Oasis Overland places the main carnival in Zimbabwe, and for 2023 names the Elephant Hills Resort beside the Zambezi River as its venue.
The Zambian leg was new. Victoria Falls Guide calls it a first that gives visitors in Zambia a chance to experience the magic of African music. Its venue was the Radisson Blu Hotel Mosi-Oa-Tunya, Livingstone Resort, which the same source describes as having a spacious outdoor venue with views of the Zambezi River.
The practical difference between the two venues is the country you sleep in, and that shapes everything else. The towns sit on opposite banks of the Zambezi. The two legs also had different ticket structures, as covered below. Someone based in Livingstone could treat the Zambian leg as the local option. Someone staying on the Zimbabwe side had the original venue within reach.
Both venues sat beside the same river, so the Zambezi is the constant. For a venue-by-venue breakdown, the vic falls carnival venue page is the place to go. For the Livingstone angle, including the town itself, use destination livingstone.
Tickets and packages
Entry came in tiers, and the structure differed by country. The 2023 prices listed by Victoria Falls Guide are the clearest public record.
| Pass | Side | 2023 price | Planning use |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-day pass | Zimbabwe | $50 | The lowest-priced listed ticket, suited to a single night. |
| 3-day pass | Zimbabwe | $90 | Covers the full run, the default for a festival weekend. |
| 3-day VIP | Zimbabwe | $295 | Premium tier for those wanting added extras. |
| 2-day pass | Zambia | $65 | Covers the two carnival days of the Zambian leg. |
| 2-day VIP | Zambia | $120 | Premium tier on the Zambian side. |
These figures are the 2023 prices as listed by Victoria Falls Guide.
Treat them as a historical reference point, not a quote. A price from one edition tells you how the tiers were structured, not what a later edition charged. The useful decision is between a single-day pass for a casual visit and the multi-day pass for the full run.
Tickets were not only sold directly. Reseller listings existed, and Vizit Travel offered tickets for the 2022 edition. Tour operators folded entry into trip prices. Oasis Overland says a standard 3-day ticket was included in its 2023 trip prices. It also noted that some VIP ticket options included a sunset cruise on the Zambezi, private events and pool parties.
The 2014 edition had a separate entry route for its opening event. According to Wild Horizons, the party-train journey to a secret bush location sold out well in advance, and 500+ ticket holders went. The lesson is that add-on events could sell out separately from the main passes, so a main pass alone did not guarantee a place at everything.
The vic falls carnival ticket prices page collects each tier in more detail, and the tickets page covers how entry was organised.
Accommodation and trip packages
Where to stay depended on the side of the river and on whether you booked independently or through a package. The package route is the better documented. Oasis Overland built the carnival into its overland adventures, with the festival ticket bundled into the trip price.
A bundle suits travellers who would rather not coordinate entry, transport and a place to sleep separately. It is a weaker fit for someone who only wants one night of music, since a multi-day bundle brings a longer commitment. Independent travellers had more flexibility but had to line up their own bookings around the festival dates.
The venues themselves were hotel resorts. The Zimbabwe edition used the Elephant Hills Resort, and the Zambian leg used the Radisson Blu Hotel Mosi-Oa-Tunya in Livingstone, as noted above. Staying at or near the venue shortens the trip home after a late finish, which matters on a night that runs towards midnight. The vic falls carnival accommodation packages page covers what package options looked like.
Beyond the stage: activities and side events
The festival was built around more than the main stage. The 2014 party train is the best-documented side event. Wild Horizons describes a long-sold-out journey to a secret bush location, with a live set for ticket holders. That turned a transport leg into part of the programme.
The 2023 edition added river and pool elements for those who paid for them. Oasis Overland lists a Zambezi sunset cruise, private events and pool parties among the VIP options. For ordinary pass holders, the sensible plan was to treat the daytime as free for the town’s own attractions and the evening as reserved for the stage.
On the Zambian leg, the open day between the two carnival days belonged to the Mosi Day of Thunder, per Victoria Falls Guide. That gap is the best place in the programme for sightseeing. The activities page sets out what else was on offer around the festival.
Current status
The festival’s most recent documented edition in this record is 2023. Victoria Falls Guide announced that the carnival would now take place every year in April, and the 2023 edition ran at the Elephant Hills Resort as planned. That announcement describes an intention, not a guarantee for any later year.
Treat the April schedule as the default expectation, not a promise. Anyone planning a trip around the festival should confirm the dates with the organisers or a current listing before booking flights or rooms. The reason is simple: the festival has already changed date, venue and country coverage once, so a past pattern is not a reliable forecast.
Frequently asked questions
Did the festival always run at New Year?
No. The 2014 edition began on 29 December and finished on New Year’s Eve, according to Wild Horizons. Later it moved to a standalone April date.
Could you buy a ticket for just one day?
On the Zimbabwe side, yes. A 1-day pass was listed at $50 for 2023 by Victoria Falls Guide. The Zambian leg listed 2-day passes only.
Was the Zambian leg a separate event?
It was a separate leg of the same festival, held at a Livingstone hotel and described as a first in 2023. It had its own ticket structure and a different venue from the Zimbabwe side.
Who headlined the 2014 edition?
Goldfish, the Cape Town band-and-DJ duo, headlined the New Year, with Oliver ‘Tuku’ Mtukudzi also drawing thousands, per Wild Horizons.
