The inaugural Windsor International Diaspora African Festival kicks off this weekend in downtown Windsor.
The festival will be a gathering of African and African Diaspora culture and heritage in the city of Windsor.
It kicks off July 23 with a run in downtown Windsor. Events continue throughout the week until the official grand opening ceremonies, drum festival, and Jab Jab concert Friday, July 28.
On Saturday, July 29, the festival will host a parade that will travel down Riverside Drive starting at Devonshire Road and ending at the Riverfront Festival Plaza. Festivities will continue at the Riverfront Festival Plaza throughout the day.
"We're going to have lots of food, lots of dancing, lots of storytelling. We're going to have each African village set up here and people can go in and see the culture and ask questions," said Queen Amina, Founder and CEO of Zalent Creatives the festival's creator.
A full schedule of events and ticket information can be found on the WIDA Fest website.
The inaugural WIDA Fest at the Riverfront Festival Plaza will be a green event in partnership with the City of Windsor. All vendors at the plaza have agreed to use recyclable and compostable materials to make the event "zero waste".
"With the last [zero-waste] event, it was seven hours and about two-thousand people and in that time we walked away with two bags of garbage," said Anne Marie Albidone, Manager for the Environment with the City of Windsor. "This event is obviously going to be much bigger so I'm still hoping that we're walking away with a very minimal amount of garbage and what that means is that we get to extend the life of our landfill."
