Olivia Dean to Headline Milk + Cookies Festival South Africa 2027 in Cape Town and Joburg

• Grammy and multi-BRIT Award winner Olivia Dean joined the Milk + Cookies Festival South Africa 2027 line-up
• Dean will perform at Sandringham Farm in Cape Town on 29 January and Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg on 31 January
• Olivia Dean joins previously announced acts Elaine, Zee Nxumalo, Chelsea Sloan and Jade T on the bill

Grammy-winning British soul singer Olivia Dean is headed to South Africa in January 2027 as the headline act for the third edition of Milk + Cookies Festival. It's the kind of booking that'll have music lovers clearing their calendars, and fast.

Dean is fresh off the biggest year of her career. Her sophomore album The Art of Loving, released in September 2025 via Capitol Records, won her four BRIT Awards in 2026, including British Album of the Year and British Artist of the Year, and she also took home the Grammy for Best New Artist. The double platinum-certified record currently holds the title of the biggest album in the UK in 2026, and she made history as the first British woman to simultaneously top the album and singles charts since Adele in 2021. Her lead single Man I Need is the biggest single in the UK this year, while her feature on Sam Fender's Rein Me In sits at number two.

Read also

Jill Scott's South African tour cancelled, promoter issues statement

Olivia Dean's South Africa tour dates

Dean will take the stage at Sandringham Farm in Cape Town on 29 January, followed by Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg on 31 January. She joins a line-up that already includes South African artists Elaine, Zee Nxumalo, Chelsea Sloan and Jade T, with more acts still to be announced.

For a festival that brought Kaytranada to South Africa in 2025 in front of 20,000 people, and then followed up with Gunna in 2026, Dean marks a deliberate shift in direction, a soul singer rounding out a trio of headliners who share nothing sonically but everything in terms of energy and cultural weight. Chase Freeman, Head of Marketing at Milk + Cookies, put it plainly:

"Never the same sound, always the same feeling. That's the only brief we've ever had. We book for the people in the room, not for a genre, and they come for what the room feels like as much as the name on the poster."

Read also

Young SA artist paints Black women’s dream lives on lace ahead of first Paris solo show

Milk + Cookies builds something bigger

Beyond the main stages, the festival brings together music, food, fashion, art and design through panels, workshops, pop-ups and parties across Cape Town and Johannesburg. Since its 2025 debut, the festival has drawn more than 30,000 attendees across both cities, cementing its place as a fixture of the South African summer.

Pre-registration is open now, with a pre-sale kicking off on Wednesday, 28 October at 10:00 AM SAST, and general tickets going on sale on Friday, 30 October via Howler. The event is open to those aged 18 and over.

Brandy is coming to South Africa

Remoakantse Holdings announced that US R&B icon Brandy is heading back to South Africa for a December 2026 concert.

Brandy expressed her excitement about returning to Mzansi, promising fans an unforgettable night filled with her timeless hits.

Source: Briefly News