Why You Need To Go to the Odunde Street Festival This Year

Why You Need To Go to the Odunde Street Festival This Year

From City Cast Philly by City Cast

June 11, 2026 · 19 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the significance of the Odunde Street Festival and features an interview with its CEO, Oshunbumi Fernandez-West.

Odunde, the largest African American street festival in the nation, returns to Philly on Sunday, June 14, with hundreds of thousands expected to gather on 16 blocks. What started out as a simple idea to celebrate African and Caribbean culture has become a 51-year-old demonstration of the power of community. There will be arts, crafts, and food vendors, as well as dance performances and R&B music headliner Bell Biv DeVoe. In this conversation from just before the 50th anniversary of the event, Odunde CEO Oshunbumi Fernandez-West tells host Trenae Nuri about the roots of this extraordinary event. Our newsletter has Philly news & events in your inbox every weekday morning. Call or text us: 215-259-8170 Instagram: @citycastphilly Support our show and get great perks as a City Cast Philly Neighbor: membership.citycast.fm Advertise on the podcast or in the newsletter: citycast.fm/advertise Learn more about the sponsors of this episode: Four Seasons Philadelphia

People in this episode

Host: Trenae Nuri

Guest: Oshunbumi Fernandez-West

Topics covered

  • Odunde Street Festival
  • African American culture
  • community celebration
  • arts and crafts
  • R&B music

Keywords

  • Odunde
  • street festival
  • African culture
  • community
  • Philadelphia
  • R&B music
  • Bell Biv DeVoe

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: City Cast

Books & works: Bell Biv DeVoe

Places: Philly

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