Decatur's Inaugural Pan African Festival Set For Saturday

DECATUR, GA — The city of Decatur's first-ever Pan African Festival will take place this weekend, hosted by a Decatur activist organization.

The Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights will host the free festival from 3-8 p.m. Saturday in Decatur Square, where the Confederate obelisk stood for more than 100 years. The monument was removed last summer amid protests across the nation over the killing of George Floyd.

“Beacon Hill’s Pan African festival will be a celebration of the African diaspora and the economic achievements of its people uplifting Black entrepreneurs and small business owners while also featuring Black-led organizations organizing in the fight for liberation,” Fonta High, Beacon Hill co-chair, said in a news release.

The festival will be co-hosted by Osei The Dark Secret of V103, and there will be music by Mausiki Scales & The Common Ground Collective; drumming, songs and dance Giwayen Mata; hip-hop and spoken word by the Young Creators of the Black Man Lab; plus food, vendors, artists and speakers.

If it rains, the event will be moved to Ebster Recreation Center at 105 Electric Avenue.

For more information, visit beaconhillblackalliance.org.