It’s Sunday, 17th October 2021. It’s also 5am and the Ile Ife Grand Resort is tainted. Scenes from the night before send tremors through the chill morning air while song birds snuggle another hour. Sparse groups of partygoers walk off the last pints of alcohol from their colorful bodies— headed home to crash. Something huge had happened, a party like Osun had never seen just rocked the sleepy weekend. Fresh off every lip was Trippy & Loud; Alté & Street Edition. Another raging success and a clear indicator of things to come.

In the wake of rather unsavory odds, no one imagined the duo would execute their plan per expectation but the founder’s; Nwokwu Johnpaul and Adejumo Abiodun (aka Trippy & BlacktheDaddy) defied odds. Lining up a range of performances from talented acts; Lasko, OGPD, Genesys and Oluwadamilola. Setting up vendors integral to the fest, many of which sold out before it even truly started. The goal of merging music performances and merchandise sales into a surreal festival experience was achieved. Night time lights. Good food. Cameras. Good vibes. Merch. Alcohol. Aesthetics. Great music. Each moving piece adding to the beauty of the entire equation. A meticulous attention to detail was obvious from dusk to dawn.

Starting out isn’t never glamorous though, in fact it takes grit to build something from nothing. Backtrack to 2019, Trippy notes that:

“Ok we started off making music back then, but with little exposure we wanted to connect. We needed to be known, so we put our asses to work doing something for the community and essentially anyone that wanted to apply themselves…There were parties at the time but none were all that, we wanted something interactive that heavily incorporated creatives in the community. That’s the big idea, an avenue of bringing people together to build something, so when the time’s right everyone’s only happy to play their part.”

The first edition of Trippy & Loud did just that. And thus, the spark was borne. Fast forward to the present day, the ‘Alte & Street’ edition rocked. The duo stuck with their mantra and partnered with nearly every entrepreneur in the vicinity, putting together a chain of events that only got better per iteration. A simple yet intricate strategy of tapping into the pool of creative talents within the community, paid off beyond expectations.

On the question of sponsorship, sister companies TRiPPYSUPPLY & 1PLUGPAY made the biggest contributions. “From a purely business point of view, we made numbers. But we’re still a small brand and there’s so much room to grow over time. We saw commitment at ‘Alté & Street’ edition . A lot of people wanted to be a part of us, people coming in from Abuja, Lagos or Ibadan, getting involved and that meant so much for us as a brand. It meant we were doing something right, building a community people want to identify with. So from a purely business perspective we did great, satisfied investors and made take-home. But money wasn’t the goal here, as an entertainment brand we’re building and investing effort to increase visibility. What’s important for us is growing and watching the community grow around us.”

Looking back it’s pretty obvious these results don’t come from luck but calculated effort. Irrespective of the brutal circumstances; especially the OAU factor, the founders capitalized on the growing talents and fanbase within their immediate community. “Biggest hurdle to overcome was making sure participants (vendors, artistes, investors, partygoers) saw the vision and still stuck with us” Trippy says. “It’s part of the business to deal with doubt but our broader objective see’s Trippy & Loud as a legacy entertainment brand that’ll stand the test of time. We’re focused on continuity and the longevity of the brand.”

With ambition clear as day, the founders are very optimistic. Trippy and Loud has cemented it’s place as a budding force in the entertainment space. Anticipations are already building, and just like the second edition beat the first in scale, one certainty is that the next edition will be bigger and better. One word to describe it?
“Massive!”