Africa Oye 2018 - world music photography

Published on Mon Jul 2, 2018 by David J Colbran
Last Updated on Mon Jul 4, 2022

Africa Oye Festival is the largest celebration of live African music in the UK. Originally a smaller, multi-venue event launched in 1992, Oye now attracts over fifty thousand people every June to Liverpool's Sefton Park. The festival showcases new and established African and Caribbean artists, besides celebrating different aspects of the same cultures. Oye has also programmes music from South America, with Salsa, Soca and Reggae proving popular additions to the festival.

This year saw some new and returning artists - I was particularly looking forward to Kora virtuoso from Gambia, Sona Jobarteh, who was brilliant. The weather on the first day, started a little damp but that didn't put off the crowds and by mid-afternoon it cleared up and suddenly got quite busy. Sunday was perfect weather and as always, superb entertainment. As a Liverpool based music photographer I live only a mile from Sefton Park, so it one of the easiest festivals I cover and this was my 12th year in attendance shooting images for specialist 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 !

Lura at Africa Oye 2018

Sona Jobarteh at Africa Oye 2018

DJ Keith Marley at Africa Oye 2018

Son Yambu at Africa Oye 2018

Inner Circle at Africa Oye 2018

Author: David J Colbran