Thousands of revellers from across East Africa and the world gathered for Uganda's Nyege Nyege festival at Itanda Falls on the banks of the River Nile on September 15-18 2022.

Inaugurated in 2015, the festival showcases mainly electronic music from across the continent; it came back in its seventh edition after taking a three-year Covid-19 hiatus, despite Uganda’s parliament issuing a directive that it should be cancelled over alleged immorality.

Critics including several MPs, and the speaker of parliament described it as a "breeding ground for sexual immorality" and "homosexuality", reports africanews. 

The festival has always faced controversy: The expression "Nyege Nyege" means an irresistible urge to dance in the Luganda, but can also have sexual connotations in other dialects of the region. 

BBC Africa reports that in order to get permission to proceed with the festival, the organisers had to ensure there were no sex orgies, nudity, vulgar language, songs, expressions or gestures. People under the age of 18 were not allowed entry. 

"The excitement is up in the roof," Zawedde Patricia Zoe told BBC’s Focus on Africa. "It's just people getting together and having fun with each other. It has a wild-party-in-the-jungle feeling."

Nyege Nyege was previously banned in 2018 by former Ethics Minister Simon Lokodo, arguing that the festival "is close to devil worship and therefore unacceptable".

In Uganda, so-called "unnatural" relationships are punishable by life imprisonment under a law dating from British colonisation; in December 2013, a new law was adopted that punishes the "promotion of homosexuality" and makes it compulsory to denounce members of the LGBTQ community.