June 13, 2023
‘Wave Friendly’ Durag Festival Returns To Charlotte For The 5th Year In A Row
One of the Blackest events in the southeast is returning for the fifth year in a row, themed all around durags.
The 2023 Durag Festival is returning to Charlotte, North Carolina, and is expected to have thousands attend. Crowned the “Met Gala of durags,” the festival was started in 2018 by artists Damnit Wesley and Lisa Michelle to ” make Juneteenth the most celebrated holiday on Earth.”
Starting on June 18, this year’s lineup includes a day party, durag exhibit, movie night, and creatives mixer. Participants will experience tunes from some of the best DJs, including DJ B-Man, Micki Blendz, and DJ Beezie Beatz, and the opportunity to run with the popular Charlotte-based exercise club, Mad Miles Club.
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The rollout for the event was nothing short of creative. The team hosted a durag photo walk with photographers Mike Jones, Sir Will, and Marc Cosper to get people in the city and surrounding areas hyped up. In a bold public service announcement, Wesley gave numerous reasons why Black people and others should be in attendance this year. “Your favorite food truck, wing truck, and halal truck finna be there. Bacardi and Patron said they coming thru. The Charlotte Football Club said they finna run pick up games in the parking lot,” Wesley said.
“Red Bull called last month and told the team we wasn’t partying hard enough, they wanna give us wings…and go- karts for some reason. We gotta arcade. We gotta Digital Art Exhibition.”
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Georgia Black-owned brewery, Hippin Hops Brewery, partnered with the curators for a branded beer that will be on hand during the durag-themed celebration.
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Tickets are on sale for some listed events, but most are free for everyone.