Summer weather started late this year, but when it hit, it was with a full, Southern vengeance with killer heat and humidity. This last week, it finally started to cool off. In addition to spending time apple-picking on Saturday, I took advantage of the nice weather and went on a long walk on Sunday afternoon.
Atlanta is known for its festivals. Many neighborhoods such as Inman Park have their own festivals. Others are sponsored by breweries such as Sweetwater 420 Festival or by arts organizations and take place in parks around the city. Of course, there are also music festivals such as Shaky Knees, Shaky Boots, Midtown Music Festival, and others.
We skipped the festivals during the heat of the summer this year, but there were two on Sunday that sounded interesting, both within walking distance of our house. I decided to go to Sweet Auburn Music Fest and made the 25-minute trek on foot to check it out. One of the great things about walking to the festival instead of driving is that I noticed little details that I wouldn’t otherwise see.
The most significant building that I saw along the way was Howard Middle School. This building first opened in 1923 as an elementary school for black children. Martin Luther King, Jr went to school here as a child. In 1948, it became Atlanta’s first black high school. It closed in 1976 and remained vacant until 2021 when it reopened as a neighborhood middle school after an extensive renovation and expansion.
Sweet Auburn is an historic neighborhood that was the first black neighborhood to grow in the city after the Civil War. It became a prosperous black business district and was famous around the country. I’ll make a more detailed post about it at a later date.
The Sweet Auburn Music Fest is an annual urban music festival with performances, food, and arts vendors reflecting black culture in Atlanta. When I arrived, a young girl had just taken the stage. She was about 9 years old, wearing shiny gold pants, and belting out gospel music. A man in front of the stage was dancing and saying to everyone who walked by, “That’s my grandbaby up there! That’s my grandbaby!” He was so proud of her.
The festival was smaller than I had expected, only 3 blocks long. However, there were a few hundred people there. Not surprisingly, I only saw about 9 other white people walking around.
I walked through the festival, looking at things for sale, listening to music. As I left, an older lady had taken the stage with her husband and was signing more gospel music. People were dancing and clapping and singing along. It was fun.
I still had some gas in the tank, so to speak, so I decided to walk over to the Old Fourth Ward Arts Festival, about 25 minutes away. On the way, I again saw some interesting things.
The Old Fourth Ward Arts Festival was pretty small, about 30 vendor tents. There were the usual paintings, watercolors, custom t-shirts, ink drawings, homemade dog toys, candles, body butter, essential oils, knitted things.
Surprisingly, there was only one food tent which served gyros, and there were zero port-a-potties. The festival was held in Historic Old Fourth Ward Park which is across from Ponce City Market, so I guess people could walk across a street, across a large parking lot, and into a massive building to find a bathroom and food alternatives. After strolling through that festival, I did just that and walked over to Ponce City Market to use the bathroom and then connect to the Beltline for the 30-minute walk home.
It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, so the Beltline was pretty busy. I always enjoy that walk as it passes through different neighborhood zones with businesses, residences, and landscape areas along the way.
When I was about halfway home, I came upon a third festival that wasn’t on my radar. We’re in the middle of Hispanic Heritage Month, and there was a Hispanic Heritage Festival in a large grassy field next to the Old Fourth Ward skate park. There was a stage with Latin American music that made me want to boogie, lots of food booths, and arts and crafts vendors. It was a nice surprise to take a detour through this festival on my way home.
All in all, I think I set a world record by attending three festivals in one afternoon. I covered 4-1/2 miles over the course of 2-1/2 hours. It was fun to see festivals that I hadn’t seen before, and I got to see and appreciate parts of the city at a pedestrian pace. Would do it again! 14 out of 10!
And just because these flowers brought me so much joy, here they are again: