BotangRecords Closes Out Summer on the AfroFest Minnesota Stage

BotangRecords artists and drummers backstage at AfroFest Minnesota 2025, Becker Park, Crystal.

Summer 2025 had already given BotangRecords the Cosgrove Stage at the Minnesota State Fair and an opening-ceremony trip to Cincinnati for the National Veterans Tournament. It closed with one more stop: AfroFest Minnesota, a celebration of African and Afro-diaspora culture presented by Afromaha and the Minneapolis Diversity Experience (MNDX) at Becker Park in Crystal. BotangRecords took the stage for a 30-minute set — traditional drums, dance, and a live performance built around "Kwang Kwang (Remix)," a BotangRecords production.

BotangRecords' traditional drummers had an official slot on the AfroFest Minnesota 2025 lineup, one of nearly twenty acts across the day.

AfroFest Minnesota runs as a single-day, single-stage celebration — arts, music, food, and education, all in one park, all in one afternoon — and BotangRecords shared the bill with a full slate of DJs, dance groups, and artists from 2 p.m. until the night's headliner closed the show after 8. Getting a dedicated drummers' slot on a lineup like that is its own kind of recognition: proof that traditional Kom rhythm and dance belong on the same stage as the rest of Minnesota's Afrobeats and diaspora music scene, not set apart from it.

BotangRecords' name on the official AfroFest Minnesota 2025 promotional poster, featuring traditional masked dance.

Why it mattered

By the time BotangRecords' drummers stepped up at Becker Park, it was the third major public stage of the summer — after the Minnesota State Fair and the National Veterans Tournament — and the performance folded in something newer than either: a live moment built around "Kwang Kwang (Remix)," turning a studio production into a shared, danced, drummed experience for a park full of people who might never have heard it otherwise. That's the whole loop BotangRecords is built around — record it, produce it, then carry it back out to a crowd in person.

Watch the performance: [facebook.com/reel/1318620553317569](https://www.facebook.com/reel/1318620553317569)

Why this matters for what comes next

Three stages, three different crowds, one summer — and every one of them because a partner organization made room on a lineup for BotangRecords to show up and perform. Moments like AfroFest are how a small nonprofit's reach keeps growing one festival booking at a time.

- Watch — catch the "Kwang Kwang (Remix)" performance on Facebook. - Book us — if you're organizing a cultural festival or event and want traditional African drumming and dance on your lineup, reach out. - Donate — support helps cover instruments, travel, and production for performances like this one.