Lara Rawa

In Their Words “I remember the day I thought of this idea, “A Cocktail Festival in Lagos” it seemed outlandish, but look at us now, 10 years later!” There is a kind of astonishment in that recollection, the kind that comes when an idea once spoken in a room, perhaps lightly or perhaps with defiance, has gone on to occupy real space in the city. The sentence carries the arc from improbable to established, from a thought that once felt outsized to a reality now measured in years. Lagos remains the center of the story, the place where the idea took shape and where it continues to return. “The biggest Cocktail Festival ih Nigeria is about to hit Lagos for the 10th time! 10 X bigger! 10 X bolder! 10 X better!” That declaration lands like a drumbeat. It is part invitation, part milestone, part promise, with the repetition sharpening the scale of the moment. The emphasis on Lagos and the 10th time gives the festival both geography and history, while the language of “bigger,” “bolder,” and “better” stretches the event into something expansive and celebratory. Even in quote form, the excitement is unmistakable: this is not a quiet anniversary, but a very public crescendo, the kind that asks to be noticed. And underneath it all is the original impulse she describes: the habit of asking questions, of moving through restaurants and bars with curiosity intact. It is a simple gesture, but in profiles like this it often reveals the shape of a whole career—one built not on making noise first, but on listening closely enough to hear where the next idea might lead.