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New York's highly anticipated The Harlem Festival of Culture, set to rock this weekend with performances by A$AP Fern, Teyana Taylor, and Wyclef, has unfortunately been canceled due to an intense heatwave and poor air quality, which could be dangerous for the fans attending the event.
The festival organizers shared the sad news on Friday, July 28. They explained that they heard President Joe Biden's warning for everyone to stay indoors during the extreme weather. Worried about people's safety, they decided to play it safe and decided to cancel the festival:
“After strong consideration to this severe weather impacting New York City, it is with a heavy heart that we have made the tough decision to cancel this weekend’s Harlem Festival of Culture with public safety in mind.”
The Harlem Festival of Culture event was going to be a blast with artists like Fat Joe, Cam’ron, Remy Ma, and more rocking the stage. It was all about celebrating hip-hop and R&B music, but now everyone will have to wait a little longer.
Last year, they announced The Harlem Festival of Culture, taking inspiration from a famous event that happened in Harlem back in 1969. Not many folks knew about that old festival until a fantastic movie called Summer of Soul came out and showed some never-before-seen footage from back in the day.
According to the organizers, fans should not have to worry about getting a refund as fans are advised to visit The Harlem Festival of Culture website to claim their refunds.
Even though the festival was canceled, everyone's hopeful they can reschedule it when the weather's cooler. Right now, the main concern is making sure everyone stays safe and healthy during this unpredictable weather.
The Harlem Festival of Culture was set to make its return after 50 years
The Harlem Festival of Culture was an annual music festival that took place in Harlem, New York City, from 1967 to 1969. It has now made a comeback, after 50 years. but the event has been canceled due to heavy heatwaves.
The whole idea of the festival is to celebrate African American music and culture and make Black people feel proud of their roots. The concerts in 1969 became famous and were unofficially called 'Black Woodstock.'
Tony Lawrence, a Black singer, actor, and community activist came up with the idea for the original festival. He got inspired by the success of the Wattstax music festival in Los Angeles back in 1965. Tony wanted to bring something similar to Harlem to show off the amazing talent and diversity of the Black community.
The festival used to take place on Sunday afternoons from June to August in a park called Mount Morris Park, now known as Marcus Garvey Park. and anyone could attend for free, So you can imagine, lots and lots of people showed up to enjoy the music and have a blast. Some folks say there were over 300,000 people in total.
The festival had iconic performers like Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, The Staple Singers, B.B. King, Hugh Masekela, Sly & the Family Stone, and many more. And it wasn't just about the music; these artists used their voices to speak out against racism and other social injustices.
Overall, The Harlem Festival of Culture has a major history that helped shape the history of African Americans. Now it remains to be seen when the festival will be rescheduled.
