TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — While one of the biggest draws at Soul of the Southside are the musical guests, organizers said they wanted the 2022 festival to be about more than that, bringing the history and issues impacting the south side of Tallahassee straight to the people.
All month the festival engaged the community in talks and lectures of topics like preserving the culture of the south side as more businesses and housing begin to flood into that side of town, along with the history of education for students on the south side and what community members can do to help improve it.
At the Walker-Ford Community Center, attendees were able to visit and talk with Alumni from south side Schools to learn more about the area from different perspectives.
Brian Forbing graduated from Rickards High School in 2003. He said he's seen more investment opportunities come into the area, but he still sees some neighborhoods lacking basic infrastructure needs like sidewalks. He said that festivals like Soul of the Southside celebrate what's good about these neighborhoods and bring awareness to work left to be done.
FORBING
"We really need to patronize and support them so that we regain the information and content to take back to our homes, take back to our families here, and we then can discover ourselves within this content and find out how we can plan our future," said Forbing.
The Soul of the Southside Festival also features small minority businesses from within the south side. Organizer Christic Henry said that for next year's festival, they're going to set up grants for up to $500 for small businesses to buy products to sell at the festival.
