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Loretta Moss, one of the owners of Momma's Food Truck, made her return to the festival after being invited to Arts in Black two years ago. Having previously enjoyed the festival's energy and atmosphere, she and her food truck were happy to come back to the event this year.

Lisa and Kamiiron Pritchard man the booth displaying the former's artwork. A regular at Arts in Black and several local events, this year marks her third appearance at the festival.

Bryan and Anthony Collier operated the food vendor Granny's Kitchen, named after their grandmother. Focused on offering affordable refreshments while retaining quality, the family-run food vendor also hoped to give a little back to the community, with a portion of proceeds going into a scholarship fund given to oncoming seniors at the end of the semester.

Alongside running a gaming trailer for the youths and gamers attending the festival, Tim Davis happily served patrons samples of his homemade dirty peanut bowl, a mix of boiled peanuts with other savory snacks like corn cobs.

Positive energy rapper Mardy Mar takes the stage, riding his signature bear and surrounded by bubbles. Focused on spreading good vibes and laughs through his music, the musician is a regular of Arts in Black and was once again popular with the youth attending the event this year.

Becky Taylor/The Tifton Gazette Shanetta Tumbling sells products from her Absolute Beauty LLC booth at Arts in Black.

Becky Taylor/The Tifton Gazette Harry King Jr. plays saxophone with his Family of Friends band.

TIFTON — Tifton’s oldest festival is still going strong with another successful showing this past weekend.

African American heritage festival Arts in Black made its return to Tifton May 2 and 3 for its 39th showing, inviting the community to come together for a weekend of entertainment and celebration of African American culture and history.

While the festival was once again held at Fulwood Park, the event was moved closer to the center of the park, as the Syd Blackmarr main stage had been torn down in preparation for the new amphitheater planned for the park, which is still in the early stages of construction.

Nevertheless, patrons, vendors and organizers alike celebrated all the same across the two days of the event, kicking things off Friday evening with the opening ceremony featuring performances by DJs G-Man and T-Roy and enjoying the event across all of the following Saturday.

Vendors set up around the roads that cut through Fulwood, circling the swath of green at the center of the park where the festival’s stage had been situated, where various performers and events went on throughout the day.

The first of these was Arts in Black’s annual poetry contest, inviting local youth, grouped by grade range, to present their best poems and poetry to the community. The winners of each category received a prize for their achievement, with Londyn Heath for grades kindergarten-third grad, Dallas Taylor for fourth-sixth grades, and Micah Meadors for ninth-12th grade and college all coming in first in their respective categories.

Afterwards, musicians and musical groups such as Mardymar, the Mood Doctors and Harold E. Thomas and Danger Zone took to the stage to perform throughout the day.

While cloudy skies and a few errant raindrops may have brought some concerns of the festival being rained out, the event thankfully saw clear weather, allowing the community to take part in the festivities properly.

Indeed, festival organizers were very satisfied with how the event turned out, and are already in the process of working towards next year’s run. With the 2026 showing celebrating the Arts in Black’s 40th anniversary, Tiftarea residents can be certain they’ll be pulling out all the stops for next year’s festival.