Africa Express – the collective of African and Western musicians co-founded by Damon Albarn – will play a one-off headline show this September.

The cross-cultural outfit will perform on September 3 at London Southend Airport as part of Southend City Festival.

We’re coming back for the first show in 3 years. ❤️ Please do join us x pic.twitter.com/lkH3FfYqHK

— Africa Express (@africaexpress) July 14, 2022

The festival, taking place between September 2 and 4, will see a slew of music big names, local talent and up-and-comers perform. As well as Africa Express, Fabio & Grooverider, Outlook Orchestra and The Music Man Project are also prepped to perform. The full festival line-up will, according to organisers, be announced soon.

Tickets are available now via the Southend City Festival website.

Africa Express last took to London streets in 2019, where a one-off show in Waltham Forest, dubbed ‘Africa Express: The Circus” saw performances by The Good, The Bad & The Queen, Django Django and more in a fusion of African and Western culture and music.

The band’s performance was given a five-star review by NME‘s Greg Cochrane, who observed the event as “a symbolic display of diversity, collaboration and unity”.

“Africa Express rarely gets together, but when it does, it specialises in generating one-off moments through unique combinations.”