Festival Review: Africa Oye 2026

Sefton Park Liverpool – Sat 20 – Sun 21 June 2026

Words: RBY, Photos: Richie Yates/Adrian Wharton/Alan Blundell

From one mans love of African music (Kenny Murray) and small gigs around Concert Square Liverpool in the early 1990s then growing to a few years based in Princes Park before swelling beyond that and moving to its now home of Sefton Park, Africa Oye has kept growing. 2024 saw a massive 80,000 people in attendance. Now in 2026 and after a fallow year in 2025, for only the second time in its history, Africa Oye has had to be ticketed. So what was the effect on the festival, Last Stop Sounds took it’s notepads and cameras to find out.

Opening at midday on the Saturday and with music already bubbling on the main and smaller Trenchtown stages it would be impossible to include everything that went on, the myriad stalls, side events, Wookies (yes Wookies) and full African drum troops performing in the audiences midst. The Saturday is sold out.

The startlingly good weather engendered the traditional Oye party atmosphere, families and groups of friends drew up picnic blankets and sat to enjoy the show. Its possible to wander easily from the relative crush at the front of the stage to sitting on the grass in the sun further out in the massive festival area to mooching around the stalls or cramming up listening to DJs with the crowd over at the Trenchtown stage.

First up on the main stage for us was Oumy who produced a captivating performance. Oumy uses her music to support causes such as climate change and gender equality. Oumy and her band weave between out and out pop through hip hop glazed sounds and deeper R & B all held together by her warm powerful voice and confident performance.

Ghorwane bring a more traditional band feel to the stage, upbeat music that gets people dancing and topping it off with an awesome brass section that added layers as required by the music from delicate bursts then full on horn crescendos. For a band born in a time of war and upheaval and with a definite peace stance Ghorwane play some positively upbeat and danceable grooves and the band appear to be enjoying it as much as the crowd,

King Ayisoba featured African instruments such as Kologo (yeah we looked it up). There’s a sharp wit and heaps of sarcasm as well as a good natured sense of humour that propels the songs forward but doesn’t distract from songs or the moments that contain political anger. Ayisoba’s gravely voice adds a distinct character to the bands unconventional sound.

Kizaba gets a hyped up introduction, his band and dancers are already moving and making sounds and then Kizaba explodes onto the stage. We’re treated to a full on non stop blur of movement and noise and its rather excellent. Kizabas main musical weapon is rhythms and the band deliver fast and fun grooves non stop whilst dancers and Kizaba himself move in synch with each other and its a visually striking melange with equally strong music.

Headliner for the Saturday, Patoranking, swells the crowd at the front even more. There is expectation lingering in the audience and in a lineup with no excess Patoranking pulls off the end of day status with style. The band is big, all the usual instruments and brass and a trio of backing singers, and they add in extra dancers to enhance the already impressive visual display. Musically its a seriously updated dancehall sound with hip hop and techno sounds plundered and thrown in to the mix all kept in check by a melodic sensibility that puts the song first.

Sunday is going to be a shorter day but we still manage to see a few key acts. Kobo Town are first up for us. Their mix of calypso based reggae is tuneful, easy on the ear and perfect for another scorchingly sunny day in the park. Whilst diverse sounds and styles emerge from their songs overall they are refreshingly direct with their Caribbean roots grooves.

Fulu Miziki look ace, their stage costumes are made from junk (there’s a lot of ring pulls in that chain mail) and their name translates as music from garbage. They also sound ace and it’s hard to pin down their sound which uses repeating electronic sounds, traditional instruments and some made from scrap alongside guitars. What it is though is a wonderful fantasmagoria of noise that is just hard to ignore.

Over at the Trenchtown stage the Merseyside based DJ outfit Dub Defenders are pumping out a ton of heavy bass as they send out a lot of Jungle and Dub sounds. They are joined by various feature artists including the splendid Andre Jahnoi. His music and rap based style is cooly insurrectionist. Lyrically he aims a barrel at authoritarian systems and colonialism. From a performance viewpoint, its razor sharp and along with the Dub Defenders it gathers a large crowd of dancing folk.

The last act we can catch is Janet Kay. One person on stage, some backing tracks and the ‘Queen of Lovers Rock’ amazing voice that seems to improve as it matures. Janet Kay chats with the audience in a comfortable manner, its friends and warm and then she launches into reggae and R&B songs that highlight her clear vocal talents. Just listening to her sing is a lesson to X-Factor style wannabes, Kay hits the notes and lets the music breathe.

As we have to leave, the party is going on over our shoulders, the sounds of big bass speakers resonate across the field. If we had to call it then the ticketed entrance has not diminished the vibrancy and party atmosphere of the African Oye Festival and this years lineup was stellar.