Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Odunde Festival transformed 16 city blocks into avenues of music, food and tradition steeped in the African and Caribbean diaspora under cloudy skies Sunday.
Founded in 1975 by Philadelphia community leader Lois Fernandez, the festival began as a one-block event supported by a $100 grant. Today, it draws more than 500,000 attendees annually, and is possibly the largest African American street festival in the nation. Held on the second Sunday of June in Graduate Hospital, one of Philadelphia’s oldest historically Black neighborhoods, it remains one of the country’s most expansive celebrations of Black and African culture.
An ancestral vision born in Nigeria
Odunde — Yoruba for “the celebration has arrived” — was inspired by a pilgrimage Fernandez took to Nigeria, where she witnessed a traditional celebration marking the new year. Motivated to bring a similar observance to her own community, she launched the first Odunde festival with a small team and modest funding. The event has grown steadily over five decades, in both size and significance.
The festival is now led by Fernandez’s daughter, Oshunbumi Fernandez-West, Odunde CEO, who has expanded its reach through the initiative ODUNDE365.
ODUNDE365 offers year-round cultural education and youth programming in Philadelphia. Just this year, Fernandez-West welcomed her oldest son, Adeniyi Ogundana, as the Odunde COO.
Invoking the goddess
The heart of the Festival’s schedule is a sacred river ceremony, held each year at noon on Sunday. Participants dressed in white or traditional attire gather at 23rd and South streets and walk in a procession to the Schuylkill River. There they offer fruit, flowers, honey and cakes to Oshun, the Yoruba goddess of rivers, fresh water, prosperity and love.
This ritual sets the tone for the day and connects the festival to its West African roots. This procession has become one of Odunde’s most recognizable traditions.
Baba Akinkugbe Karade first participated in the procession in 1997 alongside Fernandez-West. Asked what Odunde meant to him, Karade said that Odunde represented “a great deal of history, a continuation.”
Years and even decades later, Karade is touched to see Odunde expanding to include a third generation of leadership, with the naming of Ogundana as Odunde’s COO.
Echoing Karade’s sentiment about the legacy of community and ancestry that unites this festival, Odunde attendee Kathy, who came from Germantown with her daughter Kara, goddaughter Aliyah and her mother Lola, originally from Jamaica, spoke of Odunde as “a remembrance of our culture and how it has changed.”
Kathy has been attending Odunde for many years now, and she and her family especially love seeing the handmade crafts and creativity that the festival displays.
Following the procession, Odunde floods the streets with performances, vendors, and food representing African and diasporic cultures.
A street festival and community celebration
Two main stages — at 23rd and South streets and Grays Ferry and Catherine streets — host a full day of live music, including Afrobeat, jazz, hip-hop, traditional African drumming and more. This year’s 50th anniversary featured performances by Rakim and Doug E. Fresh, drawing large crowds to the South Street corridor.
The adjacent streets featured more than 100 vendors selling handmade goods, including African textiles, jewelry, natural body care products, books and visual art. Food stalls offer a wide range of African, Caribbean and soul food cuisines.
Zamunda Jewelry, based in Central New Jersey, has attended Odunde as a vendor for 10 years now, offering jewelry from Kenya. Stacey from Zamunda Jewelry loves vending at the festival and especially enjoys “meeting people from different cultures and sharing with people who ask about my culture.”
Odunde has maintained its status as a free and independently operated festival despite economic challenges and shifts in city support over the years. Odunde’s organizers emphasize its continued role as both a cultural gathering and a community anchor.
Community outreach aimed at mentoring Philadelphia youth
Through ODUNDE365, the organization aims to connect Philadelphia youth to African heritage and to offer access to cultural experiences often missing from formal curricula.
Just this year, Ogundana, stepping into his role as COO, launched Odunde Sports, with plans to open a soccer lounge at 17th and South streets.
Now in its fifth decade, Odunde shows no signs of slowing down. Organizers have indicated that future festivals will build on the legacy of Odunde founder Fernandez while continuing to evolve with the needs of the community it serves.
What began as a small neighborhood gathering has become a nationally recognized event and a permanent fixture of Philadelphia’s cultural calendar—one that continues to honor its roots while adapting to the future.
Scroll through these photos that capture the extraordinary joy and colors of this year’s 2025 Odunde Festival.
