African American Cultural Arts Festival Weekend Details

Source: Paige Boyd / Paige Boyd

African American Cultural Festival of Raleigh & Wake County, the 15th Anniversary AACF event will happen Labor Day weekend, Aug. 31 & Sept 1; 11:30 AM – 10 PM each day at Fayetteville Street, Downtown Raleigh (stretches all along Fayetteville St.)

This is a Celebration of African American culture as expressed through art, music, food, and community to connect diverse people and families from across our region with local, national, and international artists, performers, food vendors, area business owners, and our local media outlets.

KEY POINTS

· Free and family-friendly

· 100+ shopping and food vendors

· Invite everyone to participate in the Festival Opening Procession! Join us at 10 AM at the Village Stage at the Wake County Courthouse on Fayetteville St. Hundreds of community leaders, festival attendees, artists, and others will gather to march down Fayetteville Street to the AACF Main Stage in City Plaza. There will be easy-to-learn African Dance choreography taught by Baba McDaniel and an opportunity to learn to operate a giant puppet with Paperhand Puppet Intervention.

·Church Without Walls – a live worship service with Pastor Dean and Wake Chapel Church at 10 a.m. on Sunday

· Sunday Comedy Brunch featuring Comedian Chinnita Morris- formerly known as Chocolate, and hosted by Karen Clark– FOXY 107/104

· The African American Cultural Festival has experienced heightened awareness since the inaugural event in 2010, which attracted over 15,000 attendees. Now, 15 years later, it is Raleigh’s premiere event for teaching, sharing, and celebrating distinctive folk and cultural traditions of African Americans here in North Carolina and from around the world, attracting more than 50,000 festival attendees.

· Founded in 2009, the mission of the African American Cultural Festival of Raleigh Wake County (AACF) is to promote, preserve, and celebrate African American culture and heritage to a diverse community through artistic expression and education.

For more details about the African American Cultural Festival, visit our website at http://www.aacfestival.org and follow us on Facebook.

For media relations, contact Pamela Smith at 919-862-7402 or email pam@aacfestival.org.

Push the Processional —- Come out and participate in the 2024 African American Cultural Festival Opening Procession! Join us at 10 am on the Village Stage at the Wake County Courthouse located at 316 Fayetteville St. Mall Raleigh, NC 27601, and learn to operate a giant puppet with Paperhand Puppet Intervention or African Dance with Baba McDaniel of the Haramabe Collective at 10 am on Saturday, August 31, and then join the joy, love, and fun as part of this year’s procession. Choreography and operating puppetry begins at 10 am, and the procession begins at 11:15. AACF is excited to share this with our community.

VIP Options featuring reserved seating and easy parking near Main Stage, and more. Go to