In Liverpool, Africa Oyé festival is beloved. “It’s been called Christmas for scousers,” says Sonia Bassey, the current chair of the charity behind the event. The biggest festival of African and African diaspora music in the country, attracting a crowd of 80,000 to Sefton Park in south Liverpool, this summer’s edition will mark its 30th anniversary – after two years of pandemic-enforced cancellations. “The response was off the scale,” Bassey says.
Over the past three decades, Oyé has brought some of the world’s biggest African artists to Liverpool, and often on a shoestring budget: now-massive names such as Tinariwen and Songhoy Blues played some of their first British shows there. This year, chart-topping Ghanaian artist Fuse ODG will play alongside the likes of Oumou Sangaré. But just as important, especially in a city whose musical identity is synonymous with white rock groups, is its focus on showcasing local Black talent.
