In April 1975, Lois Fernandez leveraged a $100 gift from Philadelphia’s Southwest Center City Community, raised some neighborhood donations and started the Odunde Festival, a celebration that fosters ...

Sunday’s 43rd annual Odunde Festival will feature many of its traditional aspects — like the noontime procession to the Schuylkill to honor the Yoruba river goddess Oshun. But missing from the ...

The procession nears its destination, the South Street Bridge, where in the Yoruba tradition, people will make an offering of fruit and flowers to Oshun, the goddess of the river. (Brad Larrison/for ...

Anike Quinones, 9, balances an empty basket atop her head where offerings to Osun, the Yoruba goddess of the river, were once kept during Philadelphia's Odunde Festival on Sunday, June 10, 2018.

On Sunday, Philly celebrated the 43rd annual Odunde festival, the oldest and largest African festival in the U.S. The festival, which takes over the Graduate Hospital neighborhood for the day, ...

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The sound of African drumming filled City Hall on Tuesday morning. It was part of a celebration to mark the return of the nation's largest African American cultural festival.

The 50th Odunde Festival returned to South Philadelphia this weekend as thousands took part in the event that celebrates African culture. Odunde is one of the largest African street festivals in the ...

ODUNDE, the nation's largest African American cultural street festival, is back on the streets of Philadelphia in 2023. Mayor Jim Kenney along with other Philadelphia leaders and organizers of the ...

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Oshunbumi Fernandez spends her days and nights focused on tending the legacy planted by her mother, Lois, 38 years ago. It was 1975 when the elder Fernandez, now 77, started the ...

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- It's an annual festival that celebrates African Caribbean culture with music, dance, food and tons of festivities. After a year of canceled events, Philadelphia's Odunde ...

The African diaspora vibes are back on South Street with the return of the in-person Odunde Festival, according to its CEO Oshunbumi Fernandez-West. The Odunde Festival, which had to adapt and become ...

The culture, spirit and economic importance of Africa will bring hundreds of thousands of people to South Philadelphia in June for the Odunde Festival, the largest African festival in the nation.