Philadelphia Weekly

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On the second Sunday in June, thousands gather in front of the Odunde headquarters on South Street to prepare for a mini ritual, at the Schuylkill River, in honor of the Yoruba goddess Oshun. Once the prayers are over the party begins, and Odunde (“Happy New Year” in the Yoruba language) turns into a full-scale street fair complete with live entertainment, international vendors and food. 


Much more than a street fair, the Odunde Festival attracts close to 500,000 people and signals the beginning of the summer for festivalgoers like Najuma Lagbara, who has attended Odunde every year since she was a child. 


“Odunde is a beautiful festival,” says Lagbara, a Philadelphia-based performance artist and dance teacher. “It’s an opportunity to celebrate the beauty of African culture and art.” 


This year in addition to appeals for health, love, fertility and happiness, Odunde organizers are looking to the gracious goddess to help the 34-year-old festival dodge its pending financial challenges. 


Now that the city is no longer footing the bill for festival essentials like sanitation, police and fire, Odunde coffers are responsible for taking care of $100,000 in city fees. The new cost nearly doubles the festival’s budget, and to date organizers have collected less than half of what it’s going to cost in order for the event to happen.


But despite the budget shortfall, Odunde’s executive director Oshunbumi Fernandez-Ogundana, who was named after the goddess Oshun to signify her connection to the deity, is confident that the festival will go on as it has for the last four decades. Changing the date or canceling the festival altogether is not an option.


“I’m not considering what will happen if we don’t make our budget,” says Fernandez-Ogundana. “When you get stressed, you block your blessings, and I’m not going to let that happen.” 


A million things seem to happen at once in Fernandez-Ogundana’s office as she attempts to juggle her responsibilities as event planner, marketing coordinator, organizer and historian. 


This week, in addition to the logistics that need to be finalized and the emails that need to be returned, a bigger issue is in need of Fernandez-Ogundana’s immediate attention: money. But Odunde isn’t the only festival to feel the pinch. 


Last week, the annual Unity Day festival called it quits due to budget troubles. Sponsored by WDAS and Clear Channel, the free family festival has been a summertime staple for 30 years. 


“An event of this magnitude and reach relies on both financial and human resources from a variety of entities, organizations, corporations and businesses,” read a statement. “Due to the difficult economic times, we cannot produce Unity Day this year. However, our commitment and spirit continue.”


The TD Bank Philadelphia International Cycling Championship was also in trouble this year and on the verge of being canceled before sponsors pitched in to meet the event’s budget needs. 


Fernandez-Ogundana is hoping for the same rescue, but whether it will come from a private donor, a corporate sponsor or the heavens is still unclear. 


“We’re still taking vendor applications and hoping to make some of the money we need,” she says. 


Planning the festival is not usually this difficult, says Fernandez-
Ogundana, who began overseeing the event after her mother and Odunde 
founder Lois Fernandez fell ill. 
Fernandez-Ogundana, who attended her first Odunde strapped to her mother’s back, grew up with the festival and takes the responsibility of maintaining her mother’s vision seriously. 


The festival has been easier to maintain 
in the past, but this year Fernandez-Ogundana is seemingly facing one challenge after another. In addition to money, construction on the South Street bridge caused a change in the normal festival plans. 


In the hours prior to the festival, women typically sing in a broken Yoruba dialect passed down from the descendents of enslaved Nigerians sent to work on the sugar plantations in Cuba as men prepare to carry large baskets of fruit and flowers, pastries and colorful candy offerings to the river. Although they are miles away from Nigeria, where her priesthood originated and still survives, those who believe in the bounty of the Yoruba goddess of love, prosperity and beauty come from across the county to the Odunde Festival to toss prayers and offerings into the Schuylkill with the hopes the goddess will answer their request.


“We’re still having the procession, we just have to take a different route to the river,” Fernandez-Ogundana says. “We go to the river to ask Oshun to protect our children, to bless us with health and overall well-being. It’s an important part of Odunde and it hasn’t been canceled.”


Next year the festival will celebrate its 35th anniversary. Fernandez-Ogundana is looking forward to starting her fundraising campaigns earlier to ensure that the festival will continue to exist. 


“Money has been the biggest challenge this year. We’re in the same situation as other cultural events,” says Fernandez-Ogundana. “But Oshun has never let us down. We’ll make it this year.” ■

Odunde Festival and African marketplace, Sun., June 14, 10am-8pm. 23rd and South sts. odundeinc.org