Afropunk: A Celebration of Diversity, People, Culture and Place

The 10th Annual Afropunk Festival was held on August 23-24 at Commodore Barry Park in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, hosting a celebration of diversity, people, culture, community and place.

The music of the festival ranged from up-and-coming punk bands such as Sunny Gang, Top Dog Entertainment’s R&B artist-on-the-rise SZA, the Odd Future funk/soul band The Internet, and New York dance party regulars Electric Punanny. While there were great sets from all the acts, the headliners—D’angelo and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings—shined particularly bright.

Beyond the musical foreground, the festival featured a variety of underground as well as overt cultural elements that help make Brooklyn one of the most invigorating places to live. Live graffiti painting and a BMX park brought accents of the borough into focus, directing participants’ attention to many facets that surround them on a daily basis.

Within the park grounds, vendors ranged from skate shops to head wraps to political calls for actions. In order to maximize space, food was primarily outside the main gates of the festival and consisted of many ethnic offerings; a plate of chorizo, Oaxaca cheese, and arepas was particularly pleasing for this festival-goer.

Although alternative beverages were a bit expensive, with the cheapest beer at “$7 plus tips,” the true outdoor Brooklyn booze purveyors—the ambitious men with “nutcrackers”—managed to find their way into the festival. When the sun shined on Sunday, the crowd grew and the presence of $5 multi-colored boozy plastic punch bottles was unmistakable.

Fortunately for the borough, Afropunk seems to be in a music festival sweet spot: it’s been around long enough that it attracts a sizable crowd and great artists, but it isn’t big enough to fall victim to a corporate festival organization. In turn, the festival maintains an organic, and extremely Brooklyn élan, leaving us with eyes and ears open to what the event brings next year.