Liverpool is an incredibly exciting city. It boasts beautiful architectural landmarks, fascinating locations, gardens, and public squares. Our city also hosts a huge number of events and festivals that attract many tourists and visitors from other cities. Today, we’re talking about the ‘Africa Oyé’ festival, which draws over fifty thousand people to Liverpool’s Sefton Park each year. Read on to learn more about the festival’s history at liverpoolski.com.
The History of the Festival: How It All Began
The festival’s history dates back to 1992. In its early years, it consisted of small concerts in Liverpool’s city centre. With each passing year, the concerts grew larger and the event gained momentum. In 2002, the festival moved to the picturesque Sefton Park in Liverpool. By 2009, the “Africa Oyé” festival was attracting over 20,000 people. The number of festival-goers later grew to 50,000. Generally, entry to the festival has always been free. The only exception was in 2011, when an entrance fee of £5 was introduced. However, following discussions between the Oyé organisers and Liverpool City Council, this decision was reversed.
In 2017, the festival celebrated its 25th anniversary, an event attended by over 80,000 people. Three years later, the festival was held online. This decision was made due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, “Africa Oyé” celebrated its 30th birthday with a year-long programme of concerts and events. The line-up featured artists such as WITCH, The Dur Dur Band, Vieux Farka Toure, and many others.
As a reminder, the festival showcases both new and established African and Caribbean artists.
What You Need to Know About Africa Oyé
Over the years, the “Africa Oyé” festival has offered its guests various interesting attractions and much more. For example, in 2010, the festival featured a ‘Health, Learning, and Participation Zone’. This meant that at ‘Africa Oyé’, you could attend workshops in African and Caribbean dance from Movema, drumming and percussion workshops with local community group Beatlife and Glastonbury’s Chai Chapel, guitar workshops, vocal training, Brazilian capoeira martial arts performances and demonstrations, a mobile climbing wall, African massages, and more.
It should be noted that the festival also features food, arts, and crafts from around the world, as well as children’s entertainment, including drumming workshops, bouncy castles, and face painting.
As mentioned above, the festival is free to attend and is partly funded by Arts Council England North West and Liverpool City Council. In 2011 alone, the festival brought an estimated £1.3 million to the Liverpool economy.
In terms of awards, Africa Oyé was named one of the top 50 UK festivals by The Times and one of the UK’s best summer festivals by Songlines. Africa Oyé was also included in The Telegraph’s list of the top 100 festivals in Britain in 2011 and was shortlisted for Best Medium-Sized Festival in 2011, 2013, and 2015. In 2014, the festival received the ‘Inspiration Award’ from the GIT Award. It has also been nominated for a Merseyside Tourism Award and a Northern Soul Award, and has won the People’s Choice Award (2019), the International Reach Award (2019), and the Improving Community Cohesion Award (2019).
In 2023, the festival was nominated for the ‘People’s Choice Award’ at the LCR Culture & Creativity Awards.
So that’s the story of the popular “Africa Oyé” festival. We hope you found this material informative.