Africa Oyé
Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 June 2027 · Sefton Park, Liverpool (United Kingdom) — 35 years of African and diaspora music
The festival
It all began in 1992: Kenny Murray launched a series of small gigs dedicated to African music in Liverpool city centre. Thirty-five years later, Africa Oyé has become the United Kingdom's largest celebration of African music and culture — based in Sefton Park since 2002, it has drawn up to 80,000 people (a record in 2017) and set Liverpool dancing to the sounds of Africa and its diaspora.
The festival is run by a registered charity (no. 1062484), chaired by Sonia Bassey MBE. After a fallow year in 2025, when soaring costs forced a pause, it returned in 2026 — and is now preparing its 35th anniversary edition for 2027.
The 2027 edition — 19 and 20 June
On Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 June 2027, Sefton Park hosts the anniversary edition: the main concert stage, the DJ stage, the Oyé Village with its 90+ stalls, the Oyé Family Zone for children and the Oyé Active Zone. Earlybird tickets are already on sale on the festival's official website.
The man behind the festival
Africa Oyé's artistic director is Paul Duhaney: he joined the organisation in the late 1990s and has programmed African and diaspora music there for over twenty-five years. He is also a delegate of the International Presenters Network of Sunfest, in Canada — where the world's programmers come to discover the artists who will fill tomorrow's stages.
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Key facts
Name: Africa Oyé. Venue: Sefton Park, Liverpool, United Kingdom. Dates: 19 and 20 June 2027 (the festival's 35th anniversary). Founded: 1992, by Kenny Murray. Artistic director: Paul Duhaney. Official website: africaoye.com. Official contact: [email protected] (the organisation's published email).
Around the festival
The Sefton Park Palm House — the restored Victorian glasshouse, in the heart of the festival's park. The Beatles Story and the Albert Dock — Liverpool's historic docks and the museum of the band that made the city's musical legend. Liverpool Cathedral — the largest Anglican cathedral in the world, a few minutes from the park. The Walker Art Gallery — the city centre's art collections. The Baltic Triangle — Liverpool's creative quarter, its warehouses, stages and street food. Bold Street — the street of the world's kitchens, below the cathedral.