Chicago African Festival of the Arts postponed until next year due to high costs, organizers say
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A popular South Side festival that has been around for more than three decades is not happening this year.
The African Festival for the Arts has been postponed until next year. Organizers said cost is a major factor.
It's not the first festival to be postponed or canceled this year.
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At one time, the African Festival of the Arts would bring more than 200,000 people to Washington Park over the Labor Day Weekend. Last year, only around 25,000 people came.
Organizers aren't throwing in the towel just yet. They are Hoping they can find a way to transform the event and come back next year.
Nearly every year since 1995, Chicago's African Festival of the Arts has transformed Washington Park into a four-day celebration aiming to recreate a typical African village environment. People of all backgrounds could gather to eat, shop and enjoy the musical acts that are brought in from all over the country.
So many have bought their tickets, so it's a really bad look for us...Patrick Woodtor, Africa International House founder
Only the COVID pandemic had made the festival hit the pause button, until now.
"The cost of production, everything has just gone up, triple and quadruple," said Patrick Woodtor, Africa International House founder.
The painful decision to postpone until next year is being made just three weeks from when the festival was due to start. Organizers said they were hoping for a last-minute lifeline from the city in exchange for turning it into a free event, but in the end the amount offered was just not enough to make it work.
"So many have bought their tickets, so it's a really bad look for us," Woodtor said. "We have vendors who travel all over the country doing different events, and they credit this being the best for them."
One of the vendors is visual artist Dayo Laoye, who has been part of the festival almost since its inception.
"When the festival then started, it made it very easy for many of us, Black visual artists, who have very few places to show our work," Laoye said.
The postponement comes in the wake of similar news from Naperville's Ribfest, which last week announced it is closing permanently, and from the Hyde Park Summer Fest, which announced its cancellation last May.
Still, news of the African Festival for the Arts postponement came as a surprise to longtime residents in Washington Park.
Organizers said their goal is to use the hiatus as a chance to revamp the event with the aim of attracting, not just the sponsorship money, but also a younger audience that can carry the African Festival of the Arts into the future.
