Africa Oye Liverpool 2024 announces festival dates

Africa Oyé returns to Liverpool's Sefton Park this summer.

The festival is the country's biggest celebration of African and Caribbean music and will return for two days of live music, dance, workshops, DJ stages, food stalls, traders and more.

This year's Africa Oyé will take place on June 22 and 23 with the festival running from 12:30pm to 9:30pm both days and free to enter.

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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.

With the infrastructure costs of the festival rising more and more each year, however, organisers have once again faced an uphill battle to keep the event free and open to all for 2024.

Paul Duhaney, artistic director of Africa Oyé, said: "This is the people's festival and the whole dynamic of the event would change if we had to start charging. We'll fight for as long as we can to make sure that doesn't happen. We're currently looking at private sponsorship to cover the rising costs to support our funders at Arts Council England and Liverpool City Council. And of course, as a charity, every donation and merchandise sale from the public goes a long way so please do keep supporting if you want us to remain free."

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