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Philly’s Odunde Festival, the country’s largest African American street fest, is canceled due to the coronavirus

For the first time in more than 40 years, the country’s largest African American street festival won’t be happening this summer. "God willing," it plans to return in 2021, its president said.

At the 2019 Odunde Festival, musicians played a shekere, and African gourd instrument, and helped lead the procession to the South Street Bridge where an offering of fruits and flowers was tossed into the Schuylkill River to honor the deity Oshun.
At the 2019 Odunde Festival, musicians played a shekere, and African gourd instrument, and helped lead the procession to the South Street Bridge where an offering of fruits and flowers was tossed into the Schuylkill River to honor the deity Oshun.Read moreMICHAEL BRYANT / Staff Photographer

The country’s largest African American street festival will be canceled for the first time in its 40-year history.

The Odunde Festival announced Tuesday that the festival held in Philadelphia has been called off due to the coronavirus and the public health directives of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, who recently unveiled a phased reopening plan that won’t allow large gatherings in the region for a while.

Odunde’s board president and CEO, Oshunbumi Fernandez-West, said organizers made the decision in the best interest of attendees, vendors, and performers. The board had been mulling the possibility of canceling the June 14 event for the last couple of weeks, she said.

“We were trying to see how everything played out,” Fernandez-West said. “We were listening very hard to what Gov. Tom Wolf was saying and doing.”

While some parts of the commonwealth look to reopen late next week, the Philadelphia region will be among the last to do so, the governor has said.

In Philadelphia, a “new normal” will likely continue through at least the summer, Mayor Jim Kenney said earlier this month, and the city has yet to decide whether it will hold a number of its annual summertime events, including the Wawa Welcome America! festival on July Fourth.

The Odunde Festival is one of those blockbuster gatherings, drawing up to 500,000 attendees and featuring more than 100 vendors and performers. It has been named an official city event, its organizers said, and its annual economic impact on Philadelphia is about $28 million.

Each year, on the second Sunday in June, the festival centers around the stretch of South Street from 20th to 24th Streets. The celebration, rooted in the traditions of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, covers a total 15 city blocks.

It begins with a procession to the Schuylkill to give offerings to Oshun, the Yoruba river goddess. Then, crowds gather to browse African and Caribbean art, clothing, jewelry, and other items, and enjoy the entertainment.

While the Odunde Festival has never been canceled before, Fernandez-West said this year’s decision was easy, one that protected everyone involved and would have made the late Lois Fernandez, her mother and the festival’s founder, proud.

The festival plans to resume next year, Fernandez-West said, and until then she encourages “those die-hard people who love Odunde” to support their online cultural programming at odundefestival.org.

“God willing," she said, “we will have the Odunde Festival in 2021, bigger and better than ever.”

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