Grammy and multi-BRIT Award-winning artist Olivia Dean will headline the third edition of Milk + Cookies Festival South Africa. Dean plays Sandringham Farm in Cape Town on 29 January and Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg on 31 January, joining the previously announced line-up of Elaine, Zee Nxumalo, Chelsea Sloan and Jade T. Three years in, the festival is still keeping fans guessing.
Accepting the Grammy earlier this year, Dean spoke about her grandmother Carmen, who left Guyana for London at eighteen with the Windrush generation. “I’m a product of bravery,” she said. It’s a fitting note for a festival built on the same principle: that culture belongs to the people who make it and carry it somewhere new.
That’s how Milk + Cookies Festival is built in each city it runs in, with local artists on the bill and South African creators, venues and partners shaping the programme. Across [XX] days in Cape Town and Johannesburg, it brings music, food, fashion, art and design together through panels, workshops, pop-ups and parties alongside the festival stages. Additional acts and the full programme will be announced in the coming weeks.
Dean headlines a festival that effortlessly defies genre boundaries. Kaytranada opened the first South African edition in 2025 in front of 20,000 people, and Gunna followed in 2026. A producer, a rapper and a soul singer in three years is the pattern rather than the exception, and the crowd has followed it: a global, genre-agnostic audience that turns up for the experience as much as the names on the poster. And now three years in, Milk + Cookies has become a fixture of the South African summer.
“People keep asking how Kaytranada, Gunna and Olivia Dean end up on the same bill,” said Chase Freeman, Head of Marketing at Milk + Cookies. “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. Three years in, that’s what South Africa has given us. We came here to put on a show and ended up building something with the people who live here, and it’s changed how we do this everywhere else.”
TICKETS
- Pre-registration: open now at tickets.milkandcookiesfestival.com/registration
- Pre-sale: Wednesday, 28 October | 10:00 AM SAST
- General on sale: Friday, 30 October SAST via Howler, Cape Town and Johannesburg
This event is open to ages 18+ only.
About Milk + CookiesMilk + Cookies is a global music and culture platform, founded in Atlanta by four friends and built on the belief that the people making the culture should own the platform it runs on. Through its festivals, concerts and multi-day Music Week programming, Milk + Cookies brings music, fashion, food, art and design into the same space, working with the artists, creators and venues of every city it enters. Launched in South Africa in January 2025 with a 20,000-person debut headlined by Kaytranada, it has since grown to more than 30,000 attendees across Cape Town and Johannesburg, and returns for its third edition in January 2027.
About Olivia DeanAs one of the most compelling global voices in UK music today, Olivia Dean continues to cement her star status. In 2026, that standing feels undeniable, with a GRAMMY win for Best New Artist and a clean sweep at the 2026 BRIT Awards with four wins under her belt (inc. ‘British Artist of the Year’, ‘British Album of the Year’, ‘Best Pop Act’ and ‘Song of the Year’) for her sophomore record, the #1 selling, double platinum certified ‘The Art of Loving’. The album, released Sept 26th 2025 via Capitol Records, currently sits as the biggest album in the UK of 2026 (as of July) and saw Olivia become the first British woman to have a #1 album and #1 single (with ‘Man I Need’) simultaneously, as well as having the biggest opening week for a British female artist, both since Adele in 2021. ‘Man I Need’ is officially the biggest single in the UK of 2026 (as of July), with her feature on Sam Fender’s ‘Rein Me In’ sitting at #2. ‘Rein Me In’ has peaked at #1 in the UK Singles Charts for 23 non-consecutive weeks, equalling the longest running #1 of all time. The album and single ‘Man I Need’ have also reached #3 and #2 on the US Billboard charts, respectively.
She consistently commands tens of millions of monthly listeners on Spotify and sold out her first ever UK arena tour in minutes, including a six-date residency at The O2 in London, and two sold out nights at Marlay Park in Dublin to over 40,000 fans to complete the European leg of ‘The Art of Loving’ tour. In July 2026 she headed out on her biggest US headline tour to date, including four sold out nights at Madison Square Garden in New York.
FOLLOW MILK + COOKIESWebsite: milkandcookiesfestival.comInstagram: @milkcookiesfestTikTok: @milkcookiesfestX: @milkcookiesfestFacebook: Milk + CookiesSoundCloud: Milk and Cookies FestTickets: Howler — Cape Town | Johannesburg
FOLLOW OLIVIA DEANInstagram: @oliviadeano
TikTok: @oliviadeano_
Facebook: Olivia Dean
