Full line-up now available

Marking its 20th year, the Margate Soul Festival (@msfesthq) returns for 2022 with an international line-up of live music and the always-incredible party atmosphere from Friday 5th August to Sunday 7th August.

The UK’s signature soul event has been held annually on the first weekend of August since it began in 2002 on Fort Hill (Carnival Corner) with founder and owner of Olby’s Soul Cafe Eli Thompson, a sound system and an intimate crowd of music lovers.

“Back then it was just a murmur of what it has become,” says Eli. “It was Carnival Sunday and so we thought let’s get some music out on the street and some food put on the street. It was me and a guy called Mickey B – we just got out there and played some tunes, and that is how Soul Festival was born.”

An atmospherically special event, the festival is set across multiple locations in Margate’s town centre, offering both ticketed and non-ticketed events and attracting some 20,000 people from across the country and beyond.

In 2015, partnering the legendary Gordon Mac and Mi-Soul Radio put the festival on another level, attracting international artists and revellers – this year the headliner is Emeli Sande and she will be closing the festival on the Grace Foods Sunset Stage at the back of the Winter Gardens overlooking the sea.

This year there will also be some new stages and genres added to the festive mix.

“We are working really closely with London-based jazz entrepreneurs JazzRe:freshed on a New Music Stage here at Olby’s,” says Eli. “They are an organisation that has championed the new British jazz phenomenon that we can see happening now. Coming to the stage is Colectiva and Amy Gadiaga on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, with an all-female-led DJ line-up. It’s going to bring that new jazz, neo soul sound to Margate Soul Festival – that hasn’t really happened before.”

Locations include the Imperial Lounge, Lighthouse Bar, Winter Gardens, the Sun Deck and, of course, the free-to-see Thorley Taverns Revenge of The Soul Boy Stage and the Piazza Stage, which this year will host a special one-off performance from garage/grime star and Margate local Lisa Maffia.

Saturday 6th August coincides with Jamaican Independence Day, so the festival has added 80s and 90s reggae stars Vivian Jones and Kofi.

“When we talk about 80s and 90s reggae sound, Kofi is the one,” says Eli. “Her song Black Pride is still to this very day right up there. We’ve added that Jamaican heritage to the soul festival this year with a three-hour session of music celebrating Jamaican independence in the way that we should.”

The Brand New Heavies, Ten City and Julie McKnight make up most of the headliners, while adding live music to Friday 5th will be Melba Moore and Odyssey playing the Winter Gardens.

The Turner Contemporary has also come onboard this year as the location for the VIP experience with a special live performance from Tony Momrelle leading you into the weekend.

Finally, Faith in Strangers will be hosting a Jazz Funk Boogie Set on Saturday 6th, with a very special guest.

“It’s exciting times,” says Eli. “To have an event that stands up against anything else in the world for its quality and community drive. Going forward it’s about how we introduce more of these new music stages and more of the young, new sounds to make sure we sustain ourselves beyond today. In five, 10, 15 years’ time, the sound of the festival will change, but we have to support fresh, new talent to come through the channels at the same time as celebrating our history and culture.”

Weekend wristbands and day tickets are available now, while local resident tickets (CT7-CT12) will be available from the Winter Gardens in July.