The Country’s Largest African American Street Festival, ODUNDE is Back With Food, Live Music, Workshops, and More
With just $100 in neighborhood donations, Lois Fernandez and Ruth Arthur formed the ODUNDE Festival. Nearly 50 years later, ODUNDE is now country’s largest African American street festival bringing in an estimated 500,000 attendees annually.
Each year on the second Sunday in June (this year is June 9th) the ODUNDE Festival takes place at 23rd and South from 10 am – 8 pm and spanning 16 city blocks with tons of merch and food vendors and two stages for live entertainment.
The festival’s, concept originates from the Yoruba people of Nigeria, West Africa, celebrates the coming of another year for African Americans and Africanized people around the world. It is an occasion highlighted by a colorful procession from 23rd and South Street to the Schuylkill River where an offering of fruit and flowers is made to Oshun, the Yoruba goddess of the river. ODUNDE is also known for its authentic African marketplace featuring vendors from around the world selling merchandise from African nations, the Caribbean and Brazil.
Each year leading up to the festival, organizers have several workshops and events leading up to ODUNDE. This year the pre-event festivities kick-off June 2nd and will include virtual and in-person events including cooking classes, yoga, hip hop dance programming, African dance programming, videography programming, karate, fitness and much more. The full list of events and information can be found at odundefestival.org.
