The first winds of West Africa’s Harmattan dry season are in the air, and Lagos, the economic capital of the continent’s most populous country, is abuzz.

It’s “Detty December”, when the city turns into a site of pilgrimage for Nigerians and those in the diaspora to make their way home for the holidays — and to party.

The frenetic mega-city, churning with some 20 million people on a normal day, swells each year as it absorbs the newcomers.

AFP reporters spent a night out on the town on a recent December evening to document a city known for its excess exploding into full-blown extravagance.

– 6 pm –

The sun is setting over Ilubirin, a half-finished housing estate being constructed on sand-filled land reclaimed from the swampy Lagos lagoon.

Things have yet to get debaucherous or “dirty” — the English word which Nigerian Pidgin, with its sonorous accent, deftly spun into “detty”.

But the night is still young.

Technicians were still setting up spotlights among the sea of unfinished buildings as the first arrivals made their way to the “Detty December Festival“, which was hosting three weeks straight of performances and concerts.

“After the whole hustle and bustle, working all year round, Detty December is the time I have to just come out, enjoy myself and just let loose,” said Chioma Chinweze, a 33-year-old marketing consultant with straightened hair worn in a bob.

– 8 pm –

Acrobats dressed in white were performing around a moon suspended by a crane, above a small but growing audience.

“This one’s going to be bigger than last year,” Taiwo Akintunji, a nurse who has lived in Los Angeles for the past two decades, told AFP of the citywide festivities.

While many trek in from across the country or from the diaspora in Europe and the United States, some hotel owners also report growing numbers of foreign tourists as the annual fete grows.

– 11:30 pm –

On Victoria Island, a ritzy neighbourhood where Lagos’s old money mixes with new, the party was getting underway at Mr. Panther, a lounge six floors up from the streets below.

“This month, everyone goes crazy. All the clubs are opening, new clubs are opening, new restaurants are opening,” said manager Charbel Abi Habib.

“To be very honest and very straightforward, the money is made during Detty December.”

A woman in a black minidress was scrolling through her phone, when a man next to her, dressed in black with a cigar dangling from his mouth, slipped two $100 bills in her cleavage — she popped up to start dancing, as bottles of champagne circulated the club.

The bathrooms are decorated with faux marble, and the image of a black panther with a yellow eye fixed on customers as they freshen up.

“The Nigerian economy is very tight. And living in Nigeria is not really the best. But December is where you are just carefree,” said Michelle Wobo, a 32-year-old make-up artist.

– 2 am –

For the last two years, the country — already known for its brutal inequality — has been battered by double digit inflation, characterised as the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.

Across the north, meanwhile, a spate of mass kidnappings reminiscent of Boko Haram’s 2014 abduction of schoolgirls in Chibok recently led the president to declare a “national emergency”.

But none of that anxiety was apparent as guests started to filter out of Mr. Panther.

They weren’t on their way home, instead making their way upstairs to Guestlist, a club that opened just two weeks ago.

Two pole dancers put on a show in seasonal red-and-white fur boots and red satin bodysuits.

“I feel the safest I’ve ever been,” said Liberty Mini, a 33-year-old interior decorator originally from Burundi, who has lived in Lagos for three years.

– 4 am –

At Vein, a nightclub not far off, Tiwa Savage, one of Nigeria’s biggest Afrobeats stars, took to the mic.

Women in string bikini bottoms and sequined pasties covering their nipples were dancing among swirling hookah smoke, as men tossed banknotes in the air.

The practice is officially banned — the “spraying” of bills, that is, not the barely clad bumping and grinding.

– 5 am –

Babatunde Olabode took in some fresh air in the car park, among the Mercedes Benzes and Lamborghinis.

The 40-year-old real-estate agent figured he would stay out another hour, “then I go to bed”.

“Party continues tomorrow,” he added.