Durag Fest, a Juneteenth tradition that has become popular in recent years, continued in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday. Adding another chapter to the increasingly popular event that started in 2018, Charlotte residents showed up in durags and filled the streets.

As Blavity previously reported, Charlotte artists Dammit Wesley, Lica Mishelle and DJ Fannie Mae created the festival in 2018.

“Durag Fest is an event where the people in attendance are just as important as the exhibition of the artwork that exists within the show itself,” Wesley told WFAE in 2019. “It was a Black space where Black people are being elevated as art. Every person in that photograph, even that Durag baby … that’s art.”

Wesley describes durag culture as a “uniquely African American experience.”

“Just more or less, wave culture and durag culture is something that we invented, something that is uniquely us and something we should take pride in,” he said.

The Durag Fest features music, dancing and competitions, including a contest that determines who has the best low-tapered wavy hair.

“I believe it was around the late ’60s early ’70s, there was this invention called the durag,” Wesley said. “The purpose is to protect your hair. And there is just such a negative stigma around durags. And the idea is that you’re a thug, you are lesser than, you’re ghetto if you are seen with it in public, but in actuality, you’re wearing a durag because you’re taking care of yourself, you have pride about yourself,  you have intentions of going somewhere.”

Charlotte, NCDurag Festjuneteenth