Broadcasting Baltimore Update #5: Community Festivals

Ethnic festivals started out as neighborhood parties and over the years grew into larger events that drew thousands of people from in and outside Baltimore. Largely funded by the city, different ethnic groups created an event to help celebrate Baltimore’s diversity. Every summer people would look at the schedule to see the “Showcase of Nations” lineup.

As part of our CLIR Digitizing Hidden Histories project, we transferred many tapes from Eyewitness News looking at specific dates for festival footage. Among the segments we found were the AFRAM Festival, American Indian Festival, Hispanic Festival, Asian Festival, Jewish American Festival, Caribbean Festival, Ukrainian Festival, and many more. They are now available to watch on our Aviary platform and here is a sampling below.

The AFRAM Festival (1978)

The AFRAM Festival (1994)

The American Indian Festival (1993) and an interview with Barry Richardson.

The Hispanic Festival (1990)

The Asian Festival (1982)

The Ukrainian Festival (1989)

The Caribbean and Asian Festivals (1984)

The Jewish American Festival (1978)

The Lithuanian Festival (1999)

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