Taste Of Soul Canceled Due To COVID, Replaced With Drive-Thru Day Of Service
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The annual Taste of Soul Family Festival on Crenshaw Boulevard has been canceled due to surging COVID-19 cases and will be replaced with a drive-thru "Community Day of Service and Soul."
The event will take place Oct. 16 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. along Crenshaw Boulevard between 39th and Coliseum streets.
"After some careful thought, we have decided to cancel our 2021 Taste of Soul Family Festival for the general health and welfare of our community," event founder Danny J. Bakewell Sr. said in a statement. "We are aching to be back together celebrating our culture again in person -- bigger and better at our 2022 Taste of Soul on historic Crenshaw Boulevard."
The "Community Day of Service and Soul" will aim to provide those in need with food, clothing, personal hygiene items, PPE supplies, mental health and physical health services, COVID testing and vaccines, and gift bags and gift cards from local restaurants.
The annual Taste of Soul event was started in 2005 by Bakewell, CEO of Bakewell Media and Executive Publisher of the LA Sentinel/LA Watts Times Newspapers.
The event typically attracts more than 300,000 people.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)