The smells of kettle corn and Jamaican jerk chicken filled the air over the weekend as local residents and visitors flocked to the 29th annual Fifth Avenue Arts Festival.
The festival, put on by the Cultural Arts Coalition, is held every year on Northwest Sixth Street to showcase black culture in the community.
Vendors, some from as far as Central and Western Africa, lined the street selling clothing, jewelry and more, and reggae music artists performed.
"The purpose is to celebrate African and African-American culture and encourage appreciation of the heritage," said LaShanta Harris, a volunteer with the Cultural Arts Coalition.
The festival, which used to be held in May to coincide with Malcolm X's birthday, was moved to April last year and was expanded to include Earth Day.
"It helps bring a higher purpose to the event," Harris said. "A lot of our African traditions involve the Earth, so it is very fitting to combine the two."
Nkwanda Jah, director of the Cultural Arts Coalition and a founder of the festival, said the festival is still developing.
Still, some residents, like Laura Predny, come to the festival every year.
Predny, who lives in the neighborhood where the festival is held, said it's a nice representation of people and shows the diversity in the community.
"It has really good entertainment," she said. "It will probably keep me up all night."
Howard Lewis said this was his first time attending the festival. Lewis, a performing artist and teacher from St. Augustine who goes by the name of Xhabbo, sat alongside the vendors' booths and slowly banged on an old African drum known as a djembe. Xhabbo said the festival is a way to draw people together. "This will give the young people the ability to experience people from other countries," he said. "It brings generations together."
