This year’s Umoja Festival was “fire.”

by Susan Fried

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A little drizzle didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the thousands of people who showed up for the annual Umoja Fest, Africatown Heritage Festival & Parade on Saturday, Aug. 5. The two-day festival has been a part of Seafair weekend for decades, and there has been an annual parade in the community for 70 years.

This year’s parade featured one of the original members of the Seattle Black Panther Party, Elmer Dixon, as the Grand Parade Marshall. Over 40 groups including the All City Band, the CD Panthers football team and cheer squad, several drill teams, the Seattle Buffalo Soldiers, and numerous other community organizations walked in the parade, which started at 23rd Avenue and East Cherry Street and ended at 23rd Avenue and South Jackson Street, near Judkins Park, the location of the festival.

Umoja Fest celebrated Seattle’s African American community and African Diaspora culture with local and national performers on three stages, a vendors marketplace, food trucks, and lots of activities for children. Festival attendees could catch artists like Goapele, Kenyon Dixon, Lia B. and dozens more at the Soul in the City Stage; watch dance, drumming performances, spoken word, and the Black to Africa Fashion Show on the Afrobeats and Culture Stage; and watch a talent show or get dance lessons at the Children’s Village Stage.

Check out scenes from this year’s Umoja Fest below.

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📸 Featured Image: The Dolls & Gents Drill Team and Drumline entertain the crowd along 23rd Avenue during the annual Africatown Heritage Parade on Saturday, Aug. 5. (Photo: Susan Fried)

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