Liverpool Soul Fest Announce 2016 Lineup

Liverpool Soul Fest is back on Saturday October 8th, this year at a new venue and with an even bigger lineup. We sent Ben Osu to meet Kelly Clark from Soul Inspired Events to find out more. Watch the  video above for all the info you need.

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One of the most successful British soul stars of the last fifteen years, Lemar has released a trio of multi-platinum selling albums and half a dozen Top 10 singles, winning him multiple Brit and MOBO awards. Hislatest record, The Letter, was recorded atthe legendary East West Studios in L.A., the very studio where Marvin Gaye recorded Let’s Get It On!

Lemar said “I am so excited to be performing at Liverpool SoulFest this year. Liverpool is one of my favourite cities and it’s going to be a blast. Bring it on!”

Joining Lemar at Liverpool SoulFest 2016 will be acclaimed Los Angeles native Joy Oladokun, London’s incredible ShezAr [fresh from touring with Naughty Boy] and Liverpool’s own Mersey Wylie and Tosin Salako Trio. DJ’s will include World Music gurus Radio Exotica, along with DJ Tizzle and DJ Niceness.

A whole host offurther incredible acts will be announced in the coming weeks.

Liverpool Soul Fest founder Saeed Olayiwola expressed his joy at the line-up so far … “After setting the bar so high in 2015, we knew we had to make sure we pulled something special out of the bag for 2016. I think we have definitely done that with this first wave of artists.

Lemar is another great British soul artist, and the wealth of talent we have found in Liverpool and beyond is incredible! “We’re into our second year now. We had an amazing inaugural festival, but we also learned a lot of lessons. 2016 is going to be even better!”

Tickets are available now. The venue for Liverpool SoulFest 2016 will be Seel Street’s amazing Arts Club, taking over both auditoriums in the venue on Saturday 8th October with massive headliners and exciting young artists. Once the live music finishes, the main auditorium will house Superbad DJs until the early hours for an all-night soul train dance-a-thon. Across the weekend, there will also be smaller, specially commissioned events at different venues around the city.

Liverpool SoulFest launched in 2015 with British soul legend Gabrielle and Mercury-nominated ESKA topping the bill, and was a labelled a “truly astonishing” achievement by influential Liverpool music blog Getintothis. Soul Inspired Events have been running soulful events in Liverpool since 2012.

In addition to SoulFest and the monthly Soul4Soul concerts and annual Soul Reach charity events, they have curated stages at festivals such as LIMF, Sound City and Pride. Soul Inspired have also been responsible for bringing internationally acclaimed soul-inspired artists to Liverpool, including Grammy Award winners Snarky Puppy, Kirk Whalum and John Stoddart.