Price Hill is one of Cincinnati's largest neighborhoods, and one of the city's most diverse. Originally settled by Italian, Greek, Irish, and German immigrants, Price Hill is now seeing an influx of Guatemalan, African-Americans, and Hispanic populations. To celebrate that rich history and strong diversity, neighborhood leaders thought a festival was in order.
For the first time ever, the west side will celebrate the
Price Hill Cultural Heritage Festival. The Festival will take place on Saturday, August 28 from noon to 6pm at historic St. Lawrence Corner. Festival organizers say that the event will include 21 artists from all over the city, six live music performances, food and drink, and a number of events meant to celebrate their diversity.
"As we're looking at our neighborhood we are realizing its strong history and the new people moving in," said Kara Ray from Price Hill Will.
The diversity will be highlighted through the artists displaying their work on photography, oil paintings, digital art, jewelery, watercolor, mixed media, and work from the Wells Art Group. The music will include performances of Bluegrass to celebrate the neighborhood's Appalachian population, as well as Latin Jazz, Celtic, and hip-hop featuring
K-Drama. The festival will also include 30-minute Haitian dance lessons for $10 at 1:30pm and 2:30pm, and the new
Refuge Coffee Bar will be serving up their coffee specialties.
According to Ray, the formation of the East Price Hill Business Association in 2009, and the Arts Community Action Team of Price Hill Will helped to finally make the festival a reality. She says that the festival's sponsors, an anonymous donor, and proceeds from the festival's beer and wine tastings will help fund next year's festival.
The festival will take place on St. Lawrence, Enright, Warsaw, and Olive streets (
map), and utilize the Kroger parking lot nearby.
"We initially thought they would be more than big enough for our needs, but we got an overwhelming response from artists from all over the city who wanted to participate," Ray said.
The
Price Hill Cultural Heritage Festival is free and open to the public. Event organizers encourage those who attend to visit the community booth inside the Kroger parking lot to get all the information on events and offerings at the festival.
"We're going to show that Price Hill is an integrated, livable community, and the festival will allow people to come together for one day, at one event to embrace each others cultures."
Writer:
Randy A. SimesPhotography by Scott BeselerStay connected by following Randy on Twitter
@UrbanCincy
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.