The organisers of Liverpool's Africa Oye festival are urging the public and local communities to support the event more than ever as they battle rising costs.
The UK's largest celebration of African music and culture is preparing to take over Sefton Park this weekend. The festival is heading strong into its 31st year boasting a line-up of live acts, DJs and workshops for everyone to enjoy.
While the festival has always been free to attend, organisers have asked for the support of the public and local communities to keep that from changing.
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Africa Oye is fully accessible to everyone to attend with no regulations on entry or artists kept behind paid ticket walls. The performances, arts, crafts and energy the public enjoys are worked on all year round by the organisers but rising costs are proving difficult to manage.
Paul Duhaney, Africa Oye's artistic director, has worked on the festival for over two decades, watching the event go from strength to strength and snowball in popularity. Despite its success down the year, it needs the help of the public now more than ever.
Paul told the ECHO: "It's absolutely amazing to have seen the growth and how many people are impacted for the weekend in terms of people being able to access a free festival with a world-class artistic programme. A lot of people can't afford to pay the prices displayed for other festivals so this is a great opportunity for them.
"[To keep the festival free], it's becoming more and more difficult. The most crucial thing is the rise of infrastructure costs and service supply costs which have probably gone up around 7% If you look at that, there are a lot of 20, 30 or 50 grand invoices as really, really high mark-ups on your local budget and it's difficult to manage in current circumstances.
"This year is a really crucial one because I don't think it's sustainable at these current levels and it really does need the public to continue to support the festival. They've always been amazing but its difficult lately.
"There are many ways for people to donate. Even the volunteers' t-shirts have QR codes on them this year so people can donate directly, they can buy merchandise at the store or buy a drink at the bars. All of that money goes back into the festival and will help us to remain free."
He added: "The whole ethos of the festival is about people being able to come with their families and come and go as they please at different times of the day. The weather's looking great for the weekend as well so all in all, we're really hopeful that it's going to be one of the most record-breaking festivals in terms of attendance this year but we need that support to keep us going."
You can find multiple ways to support Africa Oye, including becoming a Friend of Oye, donating, volunteering and more by checking here.
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