UPDATED: Sweet Auburn Music Fest This Weekend

UPDATE: Readers, because of weather concerns, the music fest is postponed and is scheduled for the weekend of May 18.

by Maynard Eaton

SWEET AUBURN — The landscape of Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn festivals has changed in recent history, with the emergence of an additional group of festival producers – the Muhammad family. Their concept — the Sweet Auburn Music Fest — aims to re-capture the essence of the original Sweet Auburn Festival in full swing during the 70s and 80s.

That original festival essence, believes the Muhammad family, is compellingly captured through their Sweet Auburn Music Fest’s focus on family, music, culture, and community involvement.

“I was involved when the festival first brought thousands of people to Auburn Avenue and the entire community benefited,” said senior producer and Auburn Avenue businessman Steven Muhammad. “I do not approve of the profiteering that has taken place in the past decade, and we are determined to get it right, once again.”

S.E. Region News conferred with Bennie Smith, the founder of the first Sweet Auburn Festival, to get some sense of the character of the first festival.

“The idea began in 1976,” Smith said. “It was to circulate the money back into the community — that’s why I became involved.

"All of us who had businesses wanted a cleaner, safer environment. Every business bought into it. It was universal.”

Smith went on to recount how he had been urged by the late Dr. William Holmes Borders, then the politically influential pastor of the Wheat Street Baptist Church, to “make something happen on Auburn Avenue” to revitalize Sweet Auburn, known as “Sweet,” because it was once the wealthiest black business district in the country.

In 1986, the Festival, according to long-time community businessman Smith, was especially noteworthy, with appearances of James Brown, Southern Christian Leadership Conference civil rights icon Hosea Williams, barbecue cooking by the Rib Shack, and the March Against Crime and Violence.

“The merchants and the entire community on Auburn Avenue participated,” Smith said.

“We had the popular entertainers of the time to sponsor and help underwrite the costs of the Festival. And the merchants thrived from the Festival, out of their participation in the Sweet Auburn Merchant Association.”

Added executive producer Yusef Muhammad: “We want to see progress on Auburn Avenue. Atlanta’s economic power brokers and those constructing the Trolley must commit to reviving Auburn Avenue,” he said.

“We want everyone to benefit, so we’re taking this Festival back to its original essence, as a community-based, inclusive event.” 

The Muhammads' Sweet Auburn Music Fest will hold a news conference this Thursday, May 2, 2013, at 1 p.m., to launch the Festival at the historic Peacock Lounge, 186 Auburn Ave.

Music legend Gladys Knight, an Atlanta native and Dr. Yamma Brown, James Brown’s daughter, will be there to accept the inaugural "Walk of Fame" award being presented jointly by Radio One and the Sweet Auburn Music Festival (FCE Entertainment).

Cathelean Steele, First Lady of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and director of SCLC’s Justice For Girls, also will participate.

— Mr. Eaton is the national communications director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.