Annual event to feature entertainment,
Petting zoo, food trucks, kids’ activities
Gardena is gearing up for this year’s “An Afternoon in the Park,” an annual celebration of commemorating Black History Month.
Filled with music, food, local entertainment and a petting zoo, the celebration will take place at Rowley Park Saturday, Feb. 27 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Annual event to feature entertainment,
Petting zoo, food trucks, kids’ activities
Gardena is gearing up for this year’s “An Afternoon in the Park,” an annual celebration of commemorating Black History Month.
Filled with music, food, local entertainment and a petting zoo, the celebration will take place at Rowley Park Saturday, Feb. 27 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
One of the highlights of the event, which has been held in Gardena for over 25 years, will be the musical stylings of Hearts of Gold, a five-piece band made up of members between the ages of 12 and 15. The band makes music with a combination of guitar, keyboards, and drums.
Nikki Sweeney, recreation coordinator for the Nakaoka Community Center, has been involved with the Afternoon in the Park event for the past six years. She said the chance to bring people together for a common good is what prompted her to get involved in the first place.
“Getting the community together and coming together as one and celebrating black history with all kinds of cultures and diversities,” Sweeney said. “Also meeting everybody, your neighbors and talking to people and networking. That’s the main purpose and why I like participating. It gives everybody a chance to get out there and meet somebody you might not have met if you were not to come to the park.”
Aside from musical entertainment, the event will feature around 50 vendors including the Martin Luther King Committee, Holly Park Homeowners Association, the Girl Scouts of America, as well as various local Neighborhood Watch Block Clubs.
For the kids, a petting zoo will be on site so that they can experience nature’s neighbors first hand including tortoises, snakes, tarantulas, frogs, and insects.
Cheerleaders and dancers from local schools will be on hand performing to round out the festivities.
Black History Committee Chairperson Rachel Johnson says that she is hoping for between 100 and 500 attendees to the event which she said would be especially beneficial to any and all young people in attendance.
“It’s always important to recognize, celebrate, and validate the diversity that we have here in the city so cultural celebrations are extremely important, especially for the younger generation so that they’ll always remember and appreciate their history,” Johnson said. “Our past history serves as a pathway to our future.”
Johnson said that in the future, she hopes to bring in more local artisans and craftsmen showing off and selling their wares, hearkening back to previous years when the event was more of an arts festival.
“Hopefully, as we grow, we’ll start bringing in those kinds of vendors again,” Johnson said.
As of press time, none of the Gardena city council members had confirmed if they will attend, but past park events have attracted the presence of such dignitaries as Congresswoman Maxine Waters.
For more information on “An Afternoon in the Park,” call 310-217-9537.
