ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — The Legacy Neighborhoods Coalition Festival, which will be held at Memorial Stadium, is a new two-day festival celebrating the people and culture of five historic Asheville neighborhoods: Burton Street, East End/Valley Street, Emma, Shiloh and Southside.
LNC Festival will be held from 6-9:30 p.m., Friday, Aug. 28 and noon to 10 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 29 at Memorial Stadium, 32 Buchanan Pl., Asheville, N.C. The event is free and open to the public.
The Legacy Neighborhoods Coalition was formed in 2019, and has since worked “alongside neighborhood leaders and residents to preserve community history, restore visibility to people and stories that have been erased and advocate for equitable investment throughout Asheville,” the organization wrote on its website.
The festival is an opportunity to bring awareness to under-resourced and displaced communities across the city while celebrating the people who live there.
What to expect at the inaugural Legacy Neighborhoods Coalition Festival
LNC Festival will span two days at Memorial Stadium, bringing live music, food trucks and a parade to the festivities, as well as a marketplace, a dance floor, inflatables and more. The Legacy Neighborhoods Coalition will host historical and cultural displays, information about community initiatives and opportunities to meet and learn from neighborhood leaders at tents around the festival.
Each of the five neighborhoods will also take to the festival stage for storytelling, history and culture spotlights called Community Moments.
“Each one will explain what they’re doing for the community and what they’ve done for the community individually, because each one has kind of a different plan, you know?” explained Clifford W. Cotton II, the grandson of E. W. Pearson, founder of the Burton Street neighborhood in West Asheville. “All coming to one, but they’re gonna do it in different ways. So, the Shiloh area’s got one kind of way going and Burton Street got another. But they’re all joined together and used to make one big collaboration.”
LNC Festival is intended to honor the memory of previous generations of Legacy Neighborhood residents.
“The festival is both a celebration and a call to action. It invites us to honor those who came before us, carry their work forward and help ensure that Asheville’s historic communities remain places where future generations can live, lead and thrive,” the LNC wrote on the festival website.
Musical artists scheduled to appear include Delta House Jazz Band, LYRIC, Hypnotic Band and others, dancers from Ballet Folklórico, Ma Hñakihū Dance and Ballet Folklórico and several local DJs.
Participating food trucks include Cooking With Comedy Catering, Hot Fresh Fish Everyday, Purple Pigs Table Catering, Nanny’s Nectar, Funnel Cake King and Jamaican Flavors. Cream Works will join on Saturday.
Shedding light on underseen communities
Cotton explained that many of the Legacy Neighborhoods have been greatly diminished by city development or historic injustices dating back decades.
“The way they’ve destroyed all the neighborhoods, actually, it’s not really neighborhoods no more. Westside, for example. I mean, all this, freeways, tourists, tore this community in half, because all this part here, both sides were part of Westside, but now it’s divided, because the freeway’s coming through here,” Cotton said. “Just the way they divided Southside. They took the whole street away. There used to be Southside, but now it’s called South Slope, or something like that. Well, that’s known as Southside. That’s the Southside here, and the whole street is gone.”
The LNC Festival and its Community Moments are an opportunity to call attention to the experiences of people from under-resourced Asheville communities, past, present and future.
Cotton said that he hopes the festival will inspire young people, especially, to engage with those who came before them and to learn from their experiences.
“You have to learn where you come from and know where you’re going, are things I believe,” Cotton said.
For more information about the Legacy Neighborhoods Coalition and LNC Festival, visit www.ashevillelegacyneighborhoods.org/festival.
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