LOUISA COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) – The Louisa County NAACP branch hosted its sixth annual African American Heritage Festival Saturday, June 20.

The festival coincided with the Juneteenth celebration and was designed to bring everyone in the area together physically and emotionally. Louisa County NAACP President Deborah Coles helped organize Saturday’s event.

“Really, we are all just one people, you know, but we tend to isolate ourselves and create situations just for this little group of us or that little group of us, but when we plan something like this, we plan it and purposefully plan it so that we’re involving the whole community,” Coles said.

The festival had everything from food, educational and shopping spaces, and lots of performances. That’s part of what brought so many people to the event.

“Just seeing the cars begin to trickle in as they begin to trickle, and then all of a sudden there was just this mad rush and now you have a mountain of cars here. So, it’s just awesome,” Coles said. “It’s a good feeling. The weather is great, you know, and people are just mingling, mingling and enjoying themselves.”

Coles added that no one should feel like an outcast or left out and takes pride in seeing the community spend time together.

“Most of the morning I found myself just looking around and then this big smile would come on my face like, yes, yes, that’s what it’s all about. We’re together,” she said.

Coles and the other organizers start planning for next year’s festival as soon as this year’s is over, all with the goal of making people closer and lifting everyone up.

“It’s all about unity and until we get to that point, we’re all just going to be a staggered people. But I believe, I believe if we just continue pushing forward, unity will come,” she said.

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