PHILADELPHIA, Mayor Jim Kenney, the CEO of the ODUNDE, Oshunbumi Fernandez- West, Philadelphia leaders, stakeholders, and students from ODUNDE365 Entrepreneurship Program, and the Universal Alcorn Charter School gathered at City Hall on Tuesday, March 30, 2023, to announce this years ODUNDE festival. The Universal African Dance and Drum Ensemble dancers and drummers shared a sneak peek of the African movement and beats that will be performed at the ODUNDE Festival. There will be a variety of events starting with the Beautiful Unique Magnificent Individuals (I AM B.U.M.I) 25th-anniversary celebration.
The city of brotherly love and sisterly affection will have an eventful month this June. The ODUNDE Festival will arrive on June 5, celebrating its 48th anniversary of African Americans and Africanized people around the world. Every year the festival does not fail to attract over five hundred thousand people not only in Philadelphia; but across the country.
Here’s something interesting and true. Have you ever heard of the ODUNDE Festival? Neither did I until I started researching this article. Well, ODUNDE, which means Happy New Year, originally started from the Yoruba people of Nigeria, West Africa, and celebrates the coming of another year for African Americans and Africanized people around the globe. Today, people of African descent still celebrate the joy of being born into the African culture at the ODUNDE Festival. The ODUNDE festival is to praise the Goddess of Yoruba, and every year there is a proposal at 23rd and South Street to the Schuylkill River of fruits and flowers made to Oshun, the Yoruba goddess of the river.
The ODUNDE Festival legacy was created in 1975 by Lois Fernandez, who is the mother of the current CEO of ODUNDE, Oshunbumi Fernandez – West. In the beginning, ODUNDE was a gathering of about fifty people in Philadelphia, and today it encompasses 15 city blocks. The festival brings people from all over the United States to Philadelphia, but most importantly, brings Africanized people together. It reminds people of African descent of all the positive reasons why they aren’t as the mainstream media portrays them. It reminds people why the African culture is just as powerful and important as any other culture.
ODUNDE is also known for its authentic African marketplace featuring worldwide vendors selling merchandise from many African nations, the Caribbean, and Brazil. htttps://www.odundefestival.org
From African art to drums and beats to dances and movements, to fashions to traditional dishes, and so much more, ODUNDE is recognized as the largest African festival in the country. It’s a staple to the Philadelphia community. At this festival, Africanized people will feel comfortable fully expressing their culture or perhaps even finding out who they really are.
There will be parties throughout the entire festival, in addition to a full lineup of famous artists who have yet to be named. There are normally two stages of live entertainment. Grammy-winning soul and R&B artist …
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