Uganda is set to welcome a new festival that blends entertainment with environmental activism following the launch of the Simba Omuti Music Festival 2025.
Spearheaded by environmental advocate Dennis Daniel Ssemugenyi in partnership with events promoter Abbey Musinguzi (Abitex), the festival is scheduled for next year at Millennium Park in Kampala under the theme “Plant a Tree, Save Nature.”
The launch event, organised by Abitex Promotions, brought together media practitioners, artists, environmental activists, and supporters of green initiatives.
Speaking at the ceremony, Ssemugenyi said the festival goes beyond music and fun—it is a call to action to restore Uganda’s rapidly depleting forest cover.
“Uganda loses over 200,000 hectares of forest every year. Simba Omuti is our wake-up call. We must restore what we are losing,” Ssemugenyi said.
He encouraged Ugandans to make tree planting a personal tradition, suggesting that every citizen plants as many trees as their age each birthday.
Dr Ssemugenyi is also the founder of the Every Birthday Tree Day Initiative (EBTDI), which will be celebrated nationwide on December 20, 2025, coinciding with the festival.
On the same day, he will launch his new book, Planting a Legacy: The EBTDI Guide, which outlines strategies for instilling a tree-planting culture across generations.
The festival is designed as a hybrid of music, celebration, and conservation, aiming to transform birthdays and other celebrations into moments of unity, environmental action, and social impact.
One of its key features will be the EBTDI National Tournament, where teams representing different birth months will compete for prizes worth Shs 360 million.
Dr. Ssemugenyi stressed the initiative’s core message: “Every ticket plants a tree. Every book grows a mind. Every event builds a nation.”
He appealed to corporate organisations, NGOs, government bodies, artists, and the public to support the festival, emphasizing that it seeks to create a cultural movement around tree planting.
Events promoter Abbey Musinguzi highlighted that the festival will feature performances from top Ugandan artists, including Pastor Wilson Bugembe, Winnie Nwagi, Cindy Sanyu, Carol Kasiita, and Pallaso, promising a memorable experience for attendees.
Part of the festival proceeds will be directed to community-based projects such as scholarships, tree-planting initiatives, and other social-impact programmes, further reinforcing the event’s commitment to environmental protection and community wellbeing.
