K-Ci and JoJo, Dru Hill and Bobby “Blue” Bland are just a few of the A-list entertainers who have performed on the stage on the corner of Seventh Avenue North and 15th Street in Columbus in past years. And organizers of this year’s Seventh Avenue Heritage Festival promise this year’s event, which starts Oct. 4, will be one of the best the city has seen.
“We have Zapp again this year,” said Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem, one of the festival’s organizers. “We’ve had a lot of big names here before, but no one puts on a show like Zapp. We had them back in 2008. We pride ourselves on bringing in the best entertainment. All of the shows for the festival are free to the public.”
Entertainment was once the mainstay for the area around Seventh Avenue. With several clubs and restaurants, it was once “the entertainment district for African Americans” in Columbus, according to Karriem.
“The Queen Hotel was the only hotel that allowed African Americans,” Karriem said. “Some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry stayed in the Queen Hotel — BB King, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie — this is were African Americans stayed when they came to Columbus during the days of Jim Crow.
“The Seventh Avenue Heritage Festival pays tribute to what was once a thriving Columbus neighborhood. It and Catfish Alley were the two main business districts for African Americans.”
The festival began 30 years ago, though Karriem noted it “had laid dormant for a few years” before he became involved 10 years ago.
“I’m not doing anything different, I am just carrying on a tradition — this isn’t a festival, it’s a tradition,” Karriem said. “I would come down here when I was a kid when the entertainment was nothing more than a DJ playing on the back of a flatbed truck. I just want the community to remember the historical significance of Seventh Avenue. I just to make it vibrant like it once was.”
The festival, which starts with a reception on Oct. 4 and continues through Oct. 6, is a mixture of food, fun and music. Named one of the best attractions in the Southeast in 2010 by the Southeast Tourism Society, the Seventh Avenue Heritage Festival is known for having diverse, unique food and attractions for its guests.
“We travel to a lot of different festivals and hand-pick our vendors,” Karriem said. “We try not to have duplicate services. We’ve had a booth that fried crabs and one that made Jamaican food. One of our popular returning vendors is Bianca’s Snack Shack — they make huge hamburgers and polish sausages. We also have a vendor coming from Chicago just to make Chicago-style hot-dogs.”
The festival receives grant money from the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau along with corporate sponsorships to operate. CVB Executive Director Nancy Carpenter said the event is one of the best Columbus has to offer.
‘”The Seventh Avenue Heritage Festival is always a good festival,” Carpenter said. “It always has quality entertainment and it draws vendors from out of town. It also draws people from outside of Columbus. It is a very well-run, top notch festival.”
Karriem said the festival is not only about food and fun, it’s also about community. Nine members of the community will be recognized for their efforts in different fields during a ceremony Oct. 4.
While the attendance was down in 2011 compared to previous years, Karriem said he hopes 2012 is one of the festival’s biggest years.
“We look at our attendance over the three-day period,” Karriem said. “I think we will have a record attendance year. I realize there are several festivals in Columbus, and entertainment is our niche. This isn’t a ‘black festival;’ it’s for the community. I think the Seventh Avenue Heritage Festival is a tourist attraction. I’m proud of where we began and were we have come.”
Jeff Clark was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 29 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.