Looking for something to do this weekend? Try a little of everything at Culture Fest

The second annual Gulf Coast Culture Fest is returning this year for a day of art, music, dance, film, food and unity.

The free, two-part festival will be split into two events Saturday. The Culture Fest will feature live entertainment, vendors and food trucks 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Seville Square in downtown Pensacola. The second part of the event, a short film festival featuring Gulf Coast productions, will begin at 8 p.m. in Bartram Park.

The Gulf Coast Culture Fest was founded by Calvin Griffin who, alongside his production company FORC3 Studios LLC, saw the community coming together after the death of George Floyd in 2020 and wanted to build on that unity in the Gulf Coast.

COVID-19 stopped him from having the festival in 2020, but when he launched it in 2021, it brought out about 800 attendees.

Things to do this weekend: Seven days: Culture Fest, Fitness Fest and Military Appreciation Fest top festive week

PHOTOS from last year's event: Live music, food and vendors at first Gulf Coast Culture Fest

Visitors check out the vendors during the Gulf Coast Culture Fest at Seville Square in May 2021. The event returns Saturday.
Visitors check out the vendors during the Gulf Coast Culture Fest at Seville Square in May 2021. The event returns Saturday.

"The Gulf Coast Culture Fest is a festival celebrating diversity and inclusion," Griffin said. "It's a festival celebrating us, all of us, all together and it was a beautiful sight to see."

Griffin wanted to the event to capture the unity he saw in the community during the summer of 2020 and to celebrate the diversity and cultures within the Gulf Coast. He framed the festival around the arts to celebrate local artists and creatives.

"I'm a creative person, so art, to me, is a way of self-expression, and through art, people from different backgrounds and different cultures are really able to understand each other," Griffin said.

The SARAAB Dancers perform during the Gulf Coast Culture Fest at Seville Square in May 2021.
The SARAAB Dancers perform during the Gulf Coast Culture Fest at Seville Square in May 2021.

The festival will have over 40 vendors and about 10 food stalls collectively selling a variety of items from dog treats, essential oils, jewelry and more. There will be a diverse lineup of entertainment including Pensacola Poetry, belly dancers, Okinawa dance groups, mariachi performers and Korean fan dances.

To end the night will be the #FilmsForTheCulture Film Scramble taking place at 8 p.m. at Bartram Park. The event, presented by the Gulf Coast Short Film Fest, will feature short films from area filmmakers spanning genres from comedy to horror.

"The purpose of highlighting the arts was to bring an experience for everyone," Griffin said. "We really just wanted a whole diverse group of lineups so people can come from different cultures and share their experiences through their arts, whether it be music, dance, song or poetry or the visual arts. I just thought that everyone who attends can come out and share that experience and soak in that experience."

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola hosts Gulf Coast Culture Fest art, film, food celebration