Africa Oyé, the UK’s largest celebration of African music and culture, returns to Sefton Park this month, ushering in a new era for one of the Liverpool city region’s most cherished festivals.
Africa Oyé was born out of the monthly Club Corinto nights, produced by the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign. In 1992, people from across Liverpool came together to create a programme under the banner of the 500 Years of Resistance Campaign. While others were marking 500 years since the “discovery” of America, Liverpool chose instead to celebrate 500 years of resistance.
Africa Oyé quickly became one of the cultural projects emerging from the campaign, and over time has grown into a truly international festival. It celebrates the spirit of multiculturalism and exchange, and has welcomed artists from across Africa as well as music and performances from South America and the Caribbean.
Africa Oyé 2026 Music Lineup
The 2026 festival features a dazzling array of talent, here’s a selection of the fantastic live music on offer.
Saturday 20 June
Patoranking
A visionary in the African music industry and a cultural ambassador for Afrobeats, Patoranking blends the genre with reggae and dancehall to create a unique sound that resonates worldwide. He is a an MTV Africa Music Awards winner and earned recognition in Forbes Africa’s 30 Under 30 class of 2020.
Patoranking’s career achieved prominence when he released his hit single “My Woman My Everything” in 2016, which played a pivotal role in the global recognition of Afrobeats. With a series of successful releases under his label Amari Musiq including tracks such as “Babylon” “Abule” and “Kolo Kolo” and collaborations with the likes of Major Lazer, Wizkid, and Davido, his music has collectively amassed nearly a billion streams on YouTube alone.
Kizaba
Afrofuturist singer-songwriter and pioneer of Congolese Electric music Kizaba returns to Oyé in 2026 with a full ensemble, after successfully opening the 2022 festival as a solo artist. He skilfully blends ancestral vocals with the vibrant sounds of Congolese soukous and Afrobeat – rooted in an ‘afro-pun philosophy’, and framed by a futuristic aesthetic – with seminal performances at the New Orleans Jazz festival and WOMAD Chile.
The Kizaba live show delivers a truly unique musical experience. Driven by a vibrant and authentic energy, the performance invites audiences on an Afro-futuristic journey – a tribute to ancestral heritage reimagined through the modern sounds of today’s world.
King Ayisoba
King Ayisoba’s performances are full of raw tribal power. Rhythms and frenzied dancing mingle with Ayisoba’s distinctive voice – shattering musical codes in a piercing energy. An incredible range of deep and loud nasal cries contracts with soft and high vocals, all accompanied by his kologo.
Hailing from a rural area in the far north of Ghana, and descending from a Frafra hunting tribe, King Ayisoba offers a universe where the spirit world merges with the painful origins of Kologo music, mystical forests and concrete cracked Accra – the cries of a rebellious youth who is still seeking his identity. Bringing the traditional and modern together – while addressing personal, social and political issues that he believes need attention and change – King Ayisoba sounds like no other.
Ghorwane
Ghorwane, the legendary band from Maputo in Mozambique, are celebrating 40 years of magical and original music since their formation back in 1983.
Named after a tiny lake in the south of Mozambique – Ghorwane (“the lake that never dries out”) are a true natural force, inspiring the lives of several generations.
Peter Gabriel invited Ghorwane to play the WOMAD festival in 1990, and during that visit Real World Records offered the group the opportunity to record an album. The iconic album Majurugenta was released in 1993, opening the doors to the world stages. Tragically, just before their European tour in support of the album, the band’s most beloved member, saxophone player and composer Zeca Alage was murdered. Ghorwane regrouped and have since continued performed on stages around the world.
Oumy
An award-winning singer-songwriter and rapper, Oumy is one of Senegal’s most authentic global cultural figures. Her music blends the raw power of hip-hop with the elegance of African R&B and the energy of global pop – creating songs that transcend languages and generations, all topped with her mesmerising voice. She is the founder of FEM’ART and created the 48H DE BARGNY festival – an annual musical and social event aiming to provide solutions and training for young people and women, contributing to the development of her community.
Sunday 21 June
Fatoumata Diawara
Fatoumata Diawara is pure energy. Her vibrant voice tells the story of Africa—its suffering and its rediscovered joys—sung in her mother tongue, Bambara. She is a captivating artist, able to stir emotions, to make her audience laugh, cry, and above all, dance.
Through her singing, she addresses crucial subjects such as female genital mutilation and forced marriage—personal hardships that she transforms into a universal message of hope and resilience. Having fled Mali at the age of 19 to write her own story, Fatoumata Diawara continues, at 43, to examine society’s flaws while celebrating her dual life as an artist and a mother.
Nana Benz Du Togo
Nana Benz Du Togo consists of three formidable feminist voices. Armed with nothing more than their vocals and a vintage Korg keyboard, this powerful ensemble create a unique blend of voodoo tradition and soul.
Nana Benz du Togo channels an organic sound steeped in sub-bass and layered with complex polyrhythms, creating a hypnotic foundation for the voices of these three electrifying electro-soul preachers. Their transcendent live shows are nothing short of spiritual – a blend of ancestral energy and modern fire.
Janet Kay
Queen of Lovers Rock, Janet Kay, makes her Oyé debut. The multi-award winning artist is best known for her stellar hit single “Silly Games”, which placed her in the Music Guinness Book of Records as the first Black British born Female Reggae artist to hit the top of the UK Pop Charts.
As a ‘sixties child’, Kay was exposed to the singing greats – especially those from the Tamla Motown stable – and her love for singing was born. She has since been produced by a host of legendary producers/artists, including the late great Alton Ellis, Jackie Mitto and Sugar Minot. Kay’s impact on the UK reggae scene has been inspirational – and her sweet, heartwarming vocals continue to win her many fans around the world.
Fulu Miziki
Fulu Miziki roughly translates as “music from garbage” which is in a literal sense is an accurate description of the thrillingly chaotic Eco-Friendly-Afro-futuristic-Punk-Assemble collective of artists who “come straight from a future where humans have reconciled with mother earth and with themselves”.
This multidisciplinary collective of artists is based in the heart of Africa, in the Congolese capital city Kinshasa. For several years now, its members have spent an amount of time conceptualising an orchestra made from objects ‘found in the trash’, constantly changing instruments, and always in search of new sounds. Making their own instruments, performance costumes, and masks is essential to the approach of Fulu Miziki’s musical core ideology.
Kobo Town
Kobo Town reinvigorate and reimagine calypso, infusing Caribbean folk music with roots reggae, ska, and an array of contemporary sounds to create their unique driving, joyous calypso rock, which will no doubt get Sefton Park moving.
Founded by Trinidadian-Canadian Drew Gonsalves, Kobo Town is named after the historic neighborhood in Port-of-Spain where calypso was born. The barriers and bridges built by the colonial rule that governed Trinidad have long been at the heart of Gonsalves’ much acclaimed writing. On latest album ‘Where The Galleon Sank’ he sets out to raise some of that hidden past to the surface.
Awale Jant Band
Founded by Senegalese soul singer Birame Seck and French musician Thibaut Remy, Awale Jant Band are all about connecting cultures through music. With a rich foundation in traditional Wolof storytelling from Birame’s heritage and Thibaut’s soulful sensibilities, the vibrant contemporary ensemble blend Afrobeat, Mbalax, reggae, and highlife into an electrifying fusion that bridges generations and borders.
Awale Jant Band draw deep inspiration from the rhythmic heritage of the Senegambian region. Their music pulses with sabar-driven grooves, hypnotic basslines, intricate guitar melodies, and call-and-response vocals that echo the communal spirit of West African performance. At the heart of their sound lies a commitment to storytelling—songs that speak of unity, resilience, love, migration, and social consciousness.
Beyond The Main Stage: Oyé Village, Family Zone, Markets & More
Alongside Africa Oyé’s live performances, Sefton Park transforms across the weekend into a cultural hub, with the Oyé Village bringing together over 90 stalls offering street food, fashion, crafts and cultural goods inspired by Africa and the wider world.
Elsewhere on site, visitors can take part in workshops, dance sessions and creative activities in the Oyé Active Zone, while DJs, family entertainment and a dedicated Family Zone for 2026 help expand the programme beyond the main stage and into a full-day experience for all ages.
You’ll also find the region’s finest Afro-centric DJs and those from further afield showcasing their sounds across the wider festival site, at the Trenchtown and Freetown zones.
A big part of what gives Africa Oyé its lasting appeal is its atmosphere. It remains one of the few UK festivals that feels genuinely intergenerational and community-led, drawing in families, students, dedicated music fans and visitors travelling from across the country.
For the full Africa Oye 2026 line-up, visit africaoye.com.
To discover more of what’s on from across the Liverpool city region check out our events listings.