The rapper Dupré Kelly has had plenty of triumphs in his career, but the 45-year-old never thought that hosting a music festival in Newark, his hometown, would be one of them.

“When I was growing up in the West Ward of Newark, I didn’t think I’d make it to 21,” Mr. Kelly, the frontman of the group Lords of the Underground, said. He is also among the organizers of this year’s Lincoln Park Music Festival, to be held July 29 through July 31.

Mr. Kelly said that the West Ward was once tied with the South Ward as the city’s most violent neighborhood. Now, he said, things there seem more hopeful, and cultural programming is one reason. The city’s five wards are participating in a yearlong series of concerts, art exhibitions, tours, talks and public performances, all of which celebrate New Jersey’s largest city.

Image Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark. Credit... Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

Newark Celebration 350, as the event is known, will commemorate the 350th anniversary of the city’s founding. Its 190 events, with more expected to be added, have already included a founder’s weekend festival in May that brought a crowd of 10,000 to see performers like Naughty by Nature and Faith Evans. Upcoming events include an Ecuadorean Festival, a talk about Newark’s infamous 1967 rebellion and a garden tour.