The annual Taste of Soul Family Festival on Crenshaw Boulevard has been canceled due to surging COVID-19 cases, but the October event will be transformed into a drive-thru “Community Day of Service and Soul.”
The community event will take place Oct. 16 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. along Crenshaw Boulevard between 39th and Coliseum streets.
“After some careful thought, we have decided to cancel our 2021 Taste of Soul Family Festival for the general health and welfare of our community,” event founder Danny J. Bakewell Sr. said in a statement. “We are aching to be back together celebrating our culture again in person — bigger and better at our 2022 Taste of Soul on historic Crenshaw Boulevard.”
The “Community Day of Service and Soul” will aim to provide those in need with food, clothing, personal hygiene items, PPE supplies, mental health and physical health services, COVID testing and vaccines, and gift bags and gift cards from local restaurants.
Bakewell, CEO of Bakewell Media and Executive Publisher of the LA Sentinel/LA Watts Times Newspapers, created Taste of Soul in 2005 celebrating the Black community. The annual event includes food, drink, music and a Children’s Zone. Artists including Stevie Wonder and Queen Latifah have performed at the event in the past. The festival annually attracts more than 300,000 people.
