Afro-fest
This past weekend, I attended Afro-Fest in Toronto, Canada at Woodbine Park. I didn’t get there until late in the evening (my Saturday was extremely busy). But overall, it was a positive event; we don’t really get much exposure of African music on commercial radio, so a lot of people don’t know how great the music is. African music is a fusion of acoustic, wind and electronic instrument that hits your soul and gives your melanin positive vibrations.
As for the event itself, there were a lot of vendors selling various things from dashikis, incense, African art, jerk chicken, corn, etc. But they weren’t talking down at people, so I was fine with them; they were a lot of women there going natural, which is also great to see. There were a lot of guys smoking kush and drinking beer (which I’m not a fan of at a family event), but they weren’t troubling anyone. I was glad that there weren’t any cops (with their horses), harassing people like at most African-Canadian events in Toronto either. The only problem I had was that the event ended at 10 pm,and they went from playing Afro-beat to playing ratchet hip-hop by “lil” young such-n-such. Then everyone got turnt, then they plugged out the music at 9:59 and said good night. But overall, it was a great event, and it’s important to support events like this because Africans and the whole continent is often overlooked and denigrated. So, I hope everyone comes out and supports Afro-Fest next year or support similar events in your city.