Africa Oye 2022 - world music photography in Liverpool

Published on Mon Jul 4, 2022 by David J Colbran

As I always say, Africa Oye is my favourite festival and probably the nearest, being about 15 minutes walk from my home. Slightly delayed, is the 30th anniversary of the festival a few weeks ago.

The festival was launched way back in 1992 as a series of gigs and is now one of biggest events in Liverpool and well known across the world as the UK's largest free celebration of African music and culture. Following a two year break due to the pandemic, the festival finally returned to Sefton Park and featured the usual big stage live music, DJs, dance, workshops, food stalls, traders and more across two days.

Among those performing are Grammy Award-winning Oumou Sangaré, rapper Fuse ODG and reggae musician Eek-A-Mouse. Personally my favorite was singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Kizaba. His brand of Afro Congolese electro music really got the party started and the crowd dancing.

I was shooting images for specialist performing arts image agency ArenaPal - check my live music photo archive I have with them via the jump. 

And of course don't forget to visit the official Africa Oye site if you haven't already - they often put on gigs at other times of the year. Well worth catching !

Author: David J Colbran