AFRAM attracts a quieter crowd
In second year away from downtown, festival offers open spaces of Druid Hill
Since it’s become too dangerous to sit outside on her front porch, Beverly Johnson attends Baltimore’s AFRAM Festival to visit with neighbors and friends. And she prefers to park her lawn chair on a grassy bank in Druid Hill Park — the event’s new location — rather than downtown near the sports stadiums where the outdoor celebration was held through 2016.
“I come to the festivals to meet people and have a good time,” said Johnson, 62, who lives in East Baltimore and has been attending AFRAM for the past decade, along with Artscape and other city festivals.
“My neighborhood is so filled with drugs that if you sit out on your porch you’re likely to get shot,” she said. “Here, you can hang out on the lawn and listen to some good music and you don’t have to worry about getting hit by a stray bullet.”
For the second year in a row, a slimmeddown version of the 42-year-old festival is being held in Druid Hill Park. Mayor Catherine Pugh moved the festival away from downtown in 2017 as a cost-saving measure, cut the event temporarily from two days to one and featured exclusively local acts instead of the national headliners AFRAM had showcased in the past.
Though the family-oriented cultural and musical event had drawn as many as 200,000 people some years the 2017 festival attracted just 4,000 visitors. But Pugh said it would have been fiscally irresponsible to continue the festival at its previous scale. Instead of the previous $1.2 million budget, the 2018 AFRAM Fest will cost less than $400,000, she said.
Not everyone has applauded the festival’s relocation. City Councilman Brandon Scott held a hearing July 23 to protest Pugh’s decision. He charged then that “black people … are getting the short end of the stick.” That’s nonsense, Pugh said. “Were the Latinos getting the short end of the stick when they held their festival in Patterson Park?” she asked. “Were the Greeks getting the short end of the stick when they held their festival in Greektown? Philadelphia and New York hold festivals in their parks, and they’ve always been great events.”
Pugh announced in June that the AFRAM Festival would be restored to two days but would remain in Druid Hill Park. This year’s lineup features such wellknown headliners as the British R&B singer Ella Mai (best known for her song, “Boo’d Up”) and Cash Money Records singer and rapper Jacquees.
Whitney Brown, a public information officer for the city Department of Recreation & Parks said city officials hope for a total attendance of 50,000.
Artist Aaron Maybin, a former NFL player from Mount Hebron High School, set up a booth with his friend Megan Lewis and offered items for sale ranging from T-shirts to celebrity portraits to an activist coloring book. Maybin said he thought AFRAM was more cohesive when it was held downtown. For Maybin, the stadium location generated an energy level and feeling of excitement that he misses in the more bucolic Druid Hill Park.
“It was easier to maneuver,” he said. “There were no hills or winding roads. When AFRAM Festival was downtown, you could stand in one place and see how the whole thing was laid out.”
By 2 p.m., AFRAM had been open for just two hours. Yet, the streets leading to and from the festival grounds were lined with parked cars and more were turning onto Swann Drive every time the traffic lights changed. Not all had Maryland tags.
Kathy Caldwell drove from Philadelphia on the weekend of her 54th birthday to attend the Anita Baker concert at the Modell Performing Arts Center on Friday night. Rather than driving back home immediately, she decided to stay overnight and check out the AFRAM Fest.
“I love outings in the parks,” she said.