Last Sunday marked the end of the 2014 Indiana Black Expo Summer Celebration. Attendees were on hand to enjoy the usual festivities; the outdoor concert, the exhibition hall, and the music heritage festival among other things.
“We are excited and proud of the success of this year’s Summer Celebration. Our staff and thousands of volunteers worked tirelessly to make our primary fundraiser a success and enjoyable for everyone,” said IBE President Tanya Bell. “We have already started planning for 2015 and look forward to welcoming the AME National Convention to the City of Indianapolis next year.”
Many Indy residents were in fearful anticipation over the possible threat of violent activity downtown on the final weekend of the 10-day long event. This perceived threat left downtown Indianapolis relatively sparse compared to past years. Hundreds of law enforcement officers, and a strong SWAT presence seemed excessive and unnecessary given the placid atmosphere downtown on Saturday night with the only ripples stemming from two arrests. Officers took one man into custody for public intoxication, the other was wanted in connection with a violent robbery in South Bend.
“I don’t think (Summer Celebration) doesn’t do what it’s intended to do, I just think there’s a few bad apples that get way too much limelight and it ruins the perception of this good thing,” said Brent Lyle who is a longtime Summer Celebration attendee. While Lyle said his experience was “entirely positive this year” he noticed that attendance seemed to dwindle.
At its height in popularity, Summer Celebration boasted an attendance of more than 600,000 people. In 2013, just over 200,000 people visited.
“While I was there the same mood still seemed to be there – people were eating food, having fun, and selling things,” said Lyle. “I think that’s the nature of what it is, engagement and commerce in our own community to uplift ourselves.”
When asked why he felt people decided not to come downtown, Lyle said that lack of street parking downtown may have been an issue. “I think due to security risks a lot of the surface level parking was removed (which forced attendees to park in garages) and I think that inhibits people attending -I think that type of dissonance in the mind may cause people not to come down,” said Lyle.
He also suggested that parts of Summer Celebration be moved outdoors, utilizing Monument Circle. “Keeping people cramped up in the convention center is not a ‘bad’ way to go, but maybe there’s something we could do to make the event bigger and make it seem more grand and on par with some of the other major events the city puts on,” said Lyle.
Rhonda Bayless, who had attended Summer Celebration for several years as an exhibitor with her job, as well as for entertainment and social purposes, decided to sit this year out, calling the events and exhibits “redundant.”
For her, the excitement of heading downtown for the final weekend decked out in a new “Expo outfit” is a thing of the past. She said her daughter, who is in her 20’s, decided to hang out at an event unrelated to Expo’s Summer Celebration, the T.I. concert that was held last Friday night at Suite 38 on the city’s Westside. Had this been in her day, Bayless said, “T.I. would have been at Banker’s Life” as part of Summer Celebration.
She thinks the Summer Celebration of recent years, is heavily targeted to an older demographic. A move that she feels is intentional based on the assumption that “youth are the issue.”
“It seems like IBE has taken its focus off of youth – it seems like when I was growing up, there was this focus on the total family,” said Bayless. “There was a lot for youth to do, a lot for middle aged folks to do and a lot for seniors to do. I think everything is geared toward the older folks and even though you have the teen summit, you don’t even hear about it as much. I really feel like that’s done on purpose and it’s unfortunate.”
Brandon Randall, who volunteered with the Youth Leadership Summit, said they were able to work with close to 300 youth via workshops, seminars, and engaging activities. Randall said during the entire weekend, there were no incidents of poor behavior or violence and even two of the attendees won mini grants to be used to either implement or maintain community service initiatives in their respective communities.
When asked why there is not enough awareness of the more positive aspects of Summer Celebration, Randall said that it is the responsibility of both the local media and Indiana Black Expo, Inc. to change the image of Summer Celebration, remarking that most of the effort is put on promoting the social components such as the White Party and Music Heritage Festival.
“There needs to be an effort on both sides to promote the events that are substantive for the entire community,” said Randall.
At Recorder press time, no official Summer Celebration attendance figures had been released. “Based upon ticket sales leading up to Summer Celebration as well as walk up sales, we expect attendance and sales to be up from last year,” said Bell in an electronic correspondence.
