Fulu Miziki
Africa Oyé have announced the next wave of acts for their 2024 festival in Sefton Park this summer.
Taking place on 22nd and 23rd June 2024, the country’s biggest celebration of African and Caribbean music and culture will take over one of Liverpool’s most picturesque green spaces for two packed days of live music, dance, workshops, DJ stages, food stalls, traders and more.
Beginning over three decades ago in 1992 as a series of shows in the city centre, the Africa Oyé Festival has evolved into one of Liverpool’s most beloved annual events, attracting artists and attendees from across the world, and this latest announcement shows that the event continues to showcase new and exciting African talent over three decades later.
Just announced for the main stage line-up are Congolese eco-friendly punks, Fulu Miziki; frafra gospel talent, Florence Adooni; and Canadian hip-hop contingent, Super Duty Tough Work.
Fulu Miziki roughly translates as “music from garbage” – an accurate description of the thrillingly chaotic eco-friendly-Afro-futuristic ensemble of punk artists from DR Congo who will be performing on the Sunday of the festival.
This multidisciplinary collective is based in the heart of Africa, in the Congolese capital city Kinshasa. Its members have conceptualised 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, their unique sound supports a pan-African message of artistic liberation, peace and a severe look at the ecological situation of the whole world.
Florence Adooni
Born and raised in the Ashanti capital of Kumasi, the epicentre of high-life music, Florence Adooni is part of the exciting Frafra Gospel scene in Ghana. Surrounding herself with the city’s best young musicians, she now uniquely combines the soul of the northern savannah and the sound of the rainforest region, fusing the best of both cultures into one unique show.
Her Sunday set in Sefton Park promises to be a party of epic proportions, connecting history and modern times through her contagious dance music. Expect local Ghanian traditions combining with inspiration from pop, rock and jazz, including lots of festive horns. Florence Adooni’s music has soul, charm and is bursting with talent from everyone involved.
Since forming in late 2014, Super Duty Tough Work have gone on to become one of Canada’s most exciting hip-hop outfits. The eight-piece hybrid rap-jazz-r&b group fronted by Brendan Grey and backed by a highly skilled group of local and international musicians, with the band’s show including an ensemble with horns, drums, bass, guitar, and keys.
Super Duty Tough Work (Photo: Ashlee Hutchinson)
Liverpool can expect “silky bass lines and honey-soaked horns, paired with exacting lyrics about sky-high ambitions” channelling ‘90s East Coast Hip-Hop. Grey himself describes their sound as “Public Enemy meets Griselda Records and Sampa The Great”.
Already announced for the festival this summer, the creative force of Les Amazones d’Afrique will close proceedings on Saturday 22nd June, whilst Julian Marley, fresh from his Grammy win for Best Reggae Album, tops the bill on Sunday with his band, The Uprising. Def Mama Def and The Zawose Queens were also announced earlier this month, adding to the already powerful female representation at this year’s event.
Oyé’s Artistic Director, Paul Duhaney said of the announcement: “We’re very lucky to be invited to a lot of international music markets and showcases due to the reputation that Oyé has built up internationally. We go out representing not only the festival but Liverpool as a destination, and we meet so many incredible acts wanting to play Sefton Park. Florence Adooni was an artist we had the pleasure of seeing perform at WOMEX last year, and Super Duty Tough Work showcased at Mundial Montreal and blew me away. Fulu Miziki actually played one of our favourite Liverpool venues, District a couple of years ago and we can’t wait for our festival audience to experience their unique sound and visuals. The line-up is really shaping up to be another special year.”
The Oyé Active Zone (Photo: Mark McNulty)
The final wave of main stage artists will be revealed soon, alongside the young local artists who applied to play this year’s Oyé Introduces programme, which sees up-and-coming North West talent showcased on the line-up alongside the international heavyweights. Oyé’s ethos of being ‘free and open to all’ also means that the popular Access Tent, on-stage British Sign Language translators and the Accessible Viewing Platform will all return for this year’s festival.
The Oyé Active Zone on site will once again be hosted by Liverpool’s world dance charity Movema, and audiences can expect the usual array of multi-arts workshops across the whole weekend, for all ages and abilities. The increasingly-popular DJ stages Trenchtown and Freetown are also confirmed to return with a line-up of local selectors and MCs to be announced in May.
This year’s Africa Oyé festival will take place on June 22nd and 23rd 2024, in Liverpool’s Sefton Park from 12:30pm til 9:30pm both days and entrance is FREE.