UPDATE:

A DJ stage has been added for Friday and Saturday, August 9 and 10.

This stage will be located on Roan Street between Main St. and Market St.. Isaac Villanuevo, aka DJ Centenario will play Hispanic music from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. each night.

The 16th UMOJA/Unity Festival will take place August 10-11, in downtown Johnson City, TN. It will include music, African drumming and dancing, Zulu Connection stilt walkers, storytellers, food and craft venders, medical screening, children’s carnival, corn hole toss contest, car show, 5k run/walk race, and much, much more!

Musical entertainment will be diverse, with Jazz, Gospel, R& B, Folk, country, Rap, Blues, Pop and Rock. There will be musical entertainment Friday night and Saturday from 5 p.m.

The origins of the festival go back to August 8, 1863, the day Andrew Johnson freed his slaves in Greeneville, TN. This date became emancipation day for East Tennessee freedmen and was celebrated with picnics and music.

Unity Day began in 1978 when the local NAACP, Concerned Citizens Group, Herb Greenlee and other community residents started the unity picnic. The picnic was held around August 8 of each year and included food, covered dishes (furnished by participants), games, reminiscing and fun. After several years, for whatever reason, the community event stopped.

In 1997, the aforementioned founders decided to revive the event, but with a different format. At that time, cities around Johnson City were hosting annual cultural festivals and events. This subsequently became the format for what is now known as the UMOJA/Unity Festival.

In 2004 due to heavy flooding at the Carver Recreation Center the festival was moved to the civic center where it has grown bigger and more diverse every year. The UMOJA festival partnered with East Tennessee State University’s Department of Education storytelling program in 2005 to bring the diversity of international storytellers to the program.

The UMOJA/Unity Festival is the region’s largest celebration of ethnic diversity and the universal love of life. It was established to eliminate the barriers of race and cultures: the event is a two-day celebration of life.

“Umoja” is Swahili for “Unity”: unity is to be in harmony, and of an accord to combine and to include all. Unity is the heart of this regional event with a history of more than a decade of successful celebrations.

Umoja is the first of the seven principles of the celebration of Kwanzaa, which reflects the best qualities and characteristics of the harvest festivals celebrated throughout Africa.

No admission fee is required but donations are welcome.

Since the festival has moved the festival to downtown Johnson City, there will be a Main stage at Fountain Square, a second stage on Market Street by Munsey Memorial Methodist Church, a third stage on Main at Nelson’s Fine arts, and the Storytellers will perform at the Gazebo, between Main St. and Market St.

CenturyLink, a sponsor of the event, will wifi hot wire the downtown area for the two days of the festival.

The Children’s Carnival will be Friday, August 10, from 4-8 p.m., and Saturday, August 11, from -2-8 p.m.

Both Friday and Saturday afternoons, Zulu Connections and the Watoto drummers and dancers will be performing and having workshops on Market Street.

Zulu Connection, one of the country’s finest and most popular performing arts companies, was born in the capital of music and culture: New Orleans, Louisiana.

Masters of the African form of stilt dancing and ancient mystical masquerades, Zulu Connection spellbinds its audiences with colorful and elaborate costumes, tremendous heights, extraordinary acrobatics, and magnificent dance moves. The highly rhythmic music that accompanies each performance has been characterized as captivating and invigorating, pushing most audience members to get up and dance.

Since its inception in 1990, the company has pioneered the emergence of works by both African and African-American choreographers and has been dedicated to preserving the rich culture of Africa, the Caribbean, and Haiti, which are all inherent in the make-up of New Orleans culture.

Founders Shaka and Na’imah Zulu are committed to expose audiences to the cultural arts of these nations in order to foster cross-cultural appreciation and understanding across the U. S., Canada, Europe, and Bermuda.

The Kuumbaa Watoto Dancers & Drummers are from Knoxville, TN., where they teach dancing and drumming to children in the greater Knoxville area. They also are a feature at the Kuumbaa festival that takes place every June. “Watoto” will present African expressions through their drumming and dancing style.

The Kuumbaa Watoto Drummers & Dancers and the Zulu Connection will hold a workshop in the Penny’s building next to the Hands On Museum. They will be demonstrating the various styles of dance, drumming, and stilt walking and explaining their meaning and techniques.

For a schedule of events, click here: http://umojajc.org/blog/