We Speak Music

UK’s biggest celebration of African and Caribbean culture Africa Oyé Festival returns for 2026.

Published

3 months ago

May 28, 2026

Don Reed

“This isn’t just the largest festival of African and Caribbean music in Britain, it’s the best” – The Sunday Times

The UK’s biggest celebration of African and Caribbean music and culture makes its return to Liverpool on 20th and 21st June this summer.

The Africa Oyé festival began back in 1992 as a series of gigs in Liverpool city centre, originally coming out of the monthly “Club Corinto” nights which were produced by the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign. Its growth over the last 33 years has seen the festival take place in multiple locations including Birkenhead Park, Princes Park, and Concert Square. Africa Oyé has taken place in the picturesque surroundings of Sefton Park since 2002.

Africa Oyé celebrated its 30th Anniversary in 2022, and in 2024 enjoyed its busiest ever festival, attracting over 80,000 people. The festival is a truly diverse and international event that harnesses the spirit of multiculturalism. It has played host to artists from nations right across Africa and also programmes music from The Caribbean, South America and the wider Diaspora, as well as main stage slots for emerging musicians, DJs and community performances.

The Sunday night headliner for Oyé ’26 is Grammy-nominated guitarist and singer Fatoumata Diawara, who is set to make a triumphant return to Liverpool’s Sefton Park this summer – fifteen years after her first UK festival performance at Africa Oyé!

Having fled Mali at the age of 19, Diawara continues, at 43, to examine society’s flaws while celebrating her dual life as an artist and a mother. Through her vibrant voice, Diawara addresses crucial subjects including female genital mutilation and forced marriage – personal hardships that she transforms into a universal message of hope and resilience.

The Afrofuturist chanteuse blends jazz, funk and folk with traditional Wassoulou music – singing in her mother tongue, Bambara, Diawara’s live shows make her audiences laugh, cry and above all, dance.

Making his Liverpool debut at this year’s festival is multiple award-winning Nigerian musician, Patoranking.

A visionary in the African music industry and a cultural ambassador for Afrobeats, Patoranking blends the genre with reggae and dancehall to create a unique sound that resonates worldwide. He is an MTV Africa Music Awards winner and earned the prestigious accolade of being included in Forbes Africa’s ‘30 Under 30 class of 2020’.

Patoranking’s career achieved prominence when he released his hit single “My Woman My Everything” in 2016, which played a pivotal role in the global recognition of Afrobeats. With a series of successful releases under his label Amari Musiq including tracks such as “Babylon” “Abule” and “Kolo Kolo” and collaborations with the likes of Major Lazer, Wizkid, and Davido, his music has collectively amassed nearly a billion streams on YouTube alone.

The first Black British female reggae artist to have a number one in the UK, Janet Kay, also makes her Oyé debut in 2026. The multi-award-winning artist is best known for her stellar hit single ‘Silly Games’, which placed her in the Music Guinness Book of Records as the first Black British born Female Reggae artist to hit the top of the UK Pop Charts. As a ‘sixties child’, Kay was exposed to the singing greats – especially those from the Tamla Motown stable – and her love for singing was born. She has since been produced by a host of legendary producers/artists, including the late great Alton Ellis, Jackie Mitto and Sugar Minot.

Kay’s impact on the UK reggae scene has been inspirational – and her sweet, heartwarming vocals continue to win her many fans around the world. Joining the line up for Sunday at the festival, she will be sure to bring an unforgettable performance to Oyé.

Also announced to perform as part of Oyé’s Sunday line-up is Nana Benz Du Togo. The group consists of 3 formidable feminist voices. Armed with nothing more than their vocals and a vintage Korg keyboard, this powerful ensemble create a unique blend of voodoo tradition and soul. Other recent line-up additions include ‘Eco-Friendly-Afro-futuristic-Punk-Assemble’ collective Fulu Miziki, Afrofuturist singer-songwriter and pioneer of Congolese Electric music Kizaba and Ghorwane, the legendary band from Maputo in Mozambique, who are celebrating 40 years of magical and original music since their formation back in 1983.

But Africa Oyé is about more than just music. Over 100 stalls selling the best food, drink, arts and crafts and fashion from Africa and beyond make up the vibrant and eclectic Oyé Village. A brand new Family Zone will be launched at Oyé ‘26 – with creative activities for all ages and abilities.

This year’s celebration will be the first ticketed Oyé in Sefton Park in the festival’s history, following a fallow year in 2025 due to rising infrastructure costs, changing legislation, and the increasingly difficult challenge of keeping the event free. The organisers of the ‘jewel in Liverpool’s festival crown’ are committed to making it as affordable as possible for its audience, with low ticket prices and children under 12 receiving free entry to the event (with a paying adult). Oyé will continue to provide a welcoming atmosphere as the festival begins this new chapter of an incredible journey.

Paul Duhaney, Artistic Director Africa Oyé said: “This is an exciting new era for the festival and we’re embracing the challenges that come with the changes. The line-up is one that myself and the team are really happy about with two headliners that will show all our new audience members just what the festival is all about. We can’t wait to welcome everyone back to Sefton Park this summer.”

The Africa Oyé festival will take place on 20th and 21st June 2026 in its Grade 1-listed, 200-acre home of Sefton Park – the largest open space in Liverpool.

We Speak Music

SCARECROW’s John Blaze Delivers a Career Milestone With “Twisted” and Earns Josie Music Awards Song of the Year Nomination

Published

2 hours ago

August 31, 2026

Jimmy Star

John Blaze has spent nearly four decades fronting SCARECROW, the New York hard-rock outfit he founded in 1989, and in 2026 he delivered one of the most ambitious releases of his career with “Twisted.” Now, the song has reached another major milestone: “Twisted” has been nominated for Song of the Year in the Metal/Alternative category at the Josie Music Awards.

The nomination places Blaze and SCARECROW among this year’s recognized independent artists and songwriters at the Josie Music Awards, with the awards ceremony set to take place at Nashville’s legendary Grand Ole Opry. For an artist whose career has been built on persistence, independence and decades of hard-rock storytelling, the recognition gives “Twisted” an entirely new chapter.

Written by John Blaze and Chaffin, “Twisted” pulls together a lineup of guest players that reads like a rock family reunion, built around Blaze’s long-standing friendship with Dee Snider and the legacy of Twisted Sister, a band woven into SCARECROW’s story from its earliest days.

That connection goes all the way back to the beginning. SCARECROW’s original lineup featured guitarist Eddie Ojeda, best known for his work in Twisted Sister, and the two camps have remained connected ever since. “Twisted” makes that history explicit: Dee Snider appears on the record with guest vocals during the track’s climactic second verse and chorus, lending the song an instantly recognizable jolt of arena-rock power.

Snider isn’t the only marquee name in the credits. Mark Wood, founding violinist of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, contributes electrifying violin work that gives “Twisted” a cinematic sweep uncommon in modern hard rock. Rounding out the track are TJ Jordan on lead guitar and Bobby Marks on drums, creating a powerful, road-tested foundation behind Blaze’s signature gritty vocal delivery.

The Josie Music Awards nomination feels particularly fitting because “Twisted” isn’t simply another SCARECROW release. It brings together different eras of Blaze’s musical life while pushing the band’s sound forward. There’s history in the recording, but there’s also urgency. It doesn’t sound like a band looking backward. It sounds like one with unfinished business.

For Blaze, the nomination also represents recognition of a career that has largely been built outside the traditional machinery of the mainstream music business. Independent rock artists rarely survive for decades without a fierce commitment to what they do, and SCARECROW’s longevity speaks for itself. From the band’s early years and its 1991 debut, through the Blood, Sweat and 20 Years retrospective and the theatrical production I Am SCARECROW, Blaze has continued developing a world around the music rather than simply releasing songs.

That makes the Song of the Year nomination especially meaningful. After nearly four decades of building SCARECROW, Blaze now heads to the Josie Music Awards at the Grand Ole Opry with one of his most ambitious songs recognized in the Metal/Alternative category.

And there’s something wonderfully appropriate about the song that got him there.

“Twisted” connects SCARECROW’s beginnings to its present, reunites Blaze musically with figures tied to the band’s history, and demonstrates just how much fire remains in the project. With Snider and Wood contributing to the record and Blaze still driving the band he created from the ground up, the track feels less like a nostalgic reunion than a statement of survival.

Now it’s also an award-nominated song.

For John Blaze and SCARECROW, nearly four decades into the journey, “Twisted” has become more than another entry in the catalog. It’s a career milestone — and this September, that milestone is taking SCARECROW all the way to the Grand Ole Opry.