Baltimore Rhythm Festival Brings Together World Renowned Artists and Local Talent in a Celebration Of Community, Music, Voice, and Dance.

Midtown Baltimore will be abuzz Oct. 1st with an afternoon of free stage performances, workshops, drum circles, community groups and vendors. The day culminates with a ticketed Evening Concert celebrating the deeply rooted and contemporary African American heritage of uplifting and socially conscious performance.

The Baltimore Rhythm Festival returns for a third year on Oct. 1st inside and outside Lovely Lane Church and in the Old Goucher Community, on St. Paul Street between 22nd and 24th Streets. An afternoon of free activities from noon until 6 PM includes performances, workshops, an open drum circle, and community groups. Vendors will offer global cuisine, cultural fashion, crafts, and musical instruments. A ticketed Evening Concert follows at 7:30 featuring Amadou Kouyate, Bomani Armah and Immaletchufinish, and Baltimore’s Sankofa Dance Theater. The festival is a grassroots cultural collaboration and brings together communities in our region around the common ground of rhythm in a transformative event that welcomes all to participate, learn, and connect.

The Freefall Afternoon includes an electrifying and eclectic mix of performances on the outside stage. Miyako Taiko brings the thunderous power and precision of Japanese Taiko. Cultura Plenera shares Puerto Rico’s rich musical heritage. Bumbada offers the power and community of women’s drumming. The Farafina Kan Junior Company showcases an upcoming generation of our region’s excellence in Mande inspired percussion. The Bele Bele Collective closes the afternoon with their infectious jams.

Also outside, you will find over 2 dozen vendors selling great food, jewelry, drums, and more. An open drum circle will be grooving all day. The People's Playground invites everyone to share their rhythm talents and be recognized with gifts. A Children’s Corner features activities and crafts for the little ones. (Childcare not provided)

The afternoon inside stage opens with a “desert eclectic serenade” with Mosno, followed by the powerful Afro-Native songs and chants of 3 Generationz. Virtuoso Arabic drumming follows with a set by Grammy nominated Souhail Kaspar. Next up are Dance Alchemy and their deeply spiritual offerings. Award winning musician Tom Teasley concludes the afternoon with a world percussion set.

Also inside, workshops will be offered by Daveed Korup, Menes Yahudah, Jaqui MacMillan, Jason Walker, Tom Teasley, Jihan Von Hendricks, Nilimma Devi, and Baile McKnight.

The Evening Concert brings together three performances including Baltimore’s beloved Sankofa Dance Theater as well as Amadou Kouyate who will weave magical soundscapes with the Kora,the multistringed harp-lute of the West African Griots. Completing the evening Bomani Armah and Immaletchufinish share hiphop’s infectious grooves and creative social commentary.

“This promises to be Baltimore’s biggest and best Rhythm Festival yet” said Festival co-organizer and co-founder Rory Turner.

The Evening Concert begins at 7:30. Tickets are $20, $10 for students & seniors, and are available in advance at Brown Paper Tickets.

The Festival is partially made possible by support of the following:

This event is supported in part by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council -- on the web at msac.org; Free Fall Baltimore, a program of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts made possible by presenting sponsor BGE, with generous support from The Abell Foundation, Atapco Properties, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation; and the Macht Family Foundation, along with dozens of individual contributors.

The Baltimore Rhythm Festival produces, presents, and supports the collective joy of rhythm based arts through programs and services centered on our annual festival. We are committed to diversity, inclusion, outreach, and respect. We invite a culture of artistic growth, participation, education, and connection for our community and its members, helping our city sustain individual and collective well-being.

The Baltimore Rhythm Festival is a not for profit organization fiscally sponsored by Strong City Baltimore. Beginning in 1995, The Baltimore International Rhythm and Drumming Society (BIRDS) hosted an annual Rhythm Festival. It was an event that brought communities together to recognize and celebrate the power of rhythm to connect. Since 2014, the Baltimore Rhythm Festival revives, renews and reinvents the spirit of the BIRDS festivals.

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