Main Street was bumping to the Hip-Hop styles of local artists for Hip-Hop Family Day on Saturday afternoon. The festival, sponsored by Non-Stop Hip-Hop Live, partnered with the Indie Grits Film Festival to create the “Love, Peace and Hip-Hop” themed event.
This free festival united members of the Columbia community through their love of Hip-Hop music and culture. Fans were packed against the stage on the corner of Main and Blanding streets to hear seven different artists perform original sets as well as performances from break dancers and b-boys.
“Hip-Hop is about engaging a community as a whole and bringing together as many type of people as possible,” said Indie Grits Co-Director Seth Gadsden.
Guests overflowed the 1700 block; setting up chairs to watch the performances, dancing along to the music and wandering through the wide array of booths.
Food vendors lined the block offering everything from cotton candy and funnel cakes to Louisiana gumbo or Jamaican cuisine. Eight barbers were also on site offering custom old-school hairstyles for all ages. In addition, One Columbia sponsored a live graffiti wall, a giant art wall where families could learn to spray paint their names by Izms of Art, the leading graffiti artists in South Carolina.
“We came to see the concerts, but I like that there are other things to keep us busy,” said Rashanda Burris, who traveled from Orangeburg with her four children to attend the festival.
Non-Stop Hip-Hop Live strives to highlight the vibrant hip-hop community in Columbia and around South Carolina. The organization has been in operation since 1998, but only recently partnered with the Indie Grits Film Festival.
“It’s part of the festival, but Hip-Hop Family Day isn’t about Indie Grits or films- it’s about highlighting Hip-Hop culture in every possible way,” Gadsden said.
The festival certainly united all ages, as young children shimmied alongside elderly members of the community. Diverse cultures united as one through their passion of hip-hop, the festival lived the theme of “Love, Peace and Hip-Hop.”
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