Celebrate Lexington’s diverse communities at DiverCity Festival this weekend

Editor’s Note: As Lexington celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com each day throughout 2025 will share interesting facts about our hometown. Compiled by Liz Carey, all are notable moments in the city’s history — some funny, some sad, others heartbreaking or celebratory, and some just downright strange.

One look at the performances that are part of Lexington’s DiverCity Festival this weekend shows how diverse the city is.

The one-day gathering will feature performances of everything from traditional Irish dance to hip hop, from spoken word performances to smooth jazz, from Latin dances to African music ensembles, said Brett Bibb, DiverCity Festival director.

The festival came from a Leadership Lexington class project, where Bibb and several others came up with the idea and since then have taken on the responsibility for putting the festival on each year.

The festival will run from 12 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 24, at the Robert F. Stephens Courthouse Plaza (120 N. Limestone).

“We all saw these individual cultural festivals going on — the Irish festival around Saint Patrick’s Day, the Roots and Heritage Festival, Festival Latino — and we thought wouldn’t it be awesome to kind of bring all these people and all these cultures together?” he said. “We wanted to bring them doing things that naturally bring people together, which is entertainment, food, and art.”

Now in its fifth year, the free event has expanded to two stages and nearly 50 different performances, some 70 cultural booths and more than a dozen food vendors.

“One thing that we found out is the word diversity is actually defined very differently depending on who you ask,” Bibb said. “There’s diversity of food, there’s obviously diversity of culture and entertainment, and that’s what we’ve tried to put together.”

While the first stage will feature different cultural performances, the second stage will feature Honeychild at 5 p.m. and TD Young at 6 p.m. as headlining performers.

Showing the city’s diversity is a key part of ensuring Lexington’s success, Bibb said.

“(Diversity) is pivotal to keeping our community moving forward,” he said. “One thing that we believe in is the [three] pillars to the festival — we want to educate, we want to celebrate and we want to embrace. Everything at the festival we try to do at least falls into one of those categories.”

Among the cultures that the festival will feature is the Swahili-speaking community. The East African population in Lexington is made up of about 8,000 people, and Swahili is the third-most spoken language in the city.

“There’s been a lot of diversity here, and it’s not just in the last 50 years,” said Mandy Higgins, executive director of the Lexington History Museum. “The refugee ministries and the university brought a mixture of people here. Lexington is a great place to live and once you establish a family, more family will come. Refugee resettlement is much bigger in Lexington than people realize and it’s often East African countries where Swahili is spoken.”

Elisha Mutayongwa, founder and executive director of the Marafiki Center in Lexington, said it is important to not only help people understand other cultures, but allow people to celebrate their culture. The Marafiki Center provides Swahili-speaking residents with a place to connect with other members of the Swahili speaking community.

“The Marafiki Center came from the idea of a growing a community here in town. It’s a community that has found a home and that has been welcome in Lexington,” he said.

The center will have a dance performance at the DiverCity Festival.

“We’ve always taken part in the DiverCity festival and this year, we have 23 performers that are going to be representing the Marafiki Center,” he said. “Last year we had a tremendous live music performance through our local artists and our dance team from Bryan Station High School and they did a great job. This year, we are extending that, and Henry Clay High School has a group of dancers.”

Bibb said the performances, like those from the Marafiki Center, allow festival goers to appreciate diverse cultures

“That’s what is special about this festival — you see people from all walks of life, all different backgrounds, many of whom have lived here for a long, long time and don’t spend much time downtown — and you know, for those seven hours, they feel like downtown is their home,” Bibb said. “They have their culture showcased and they’re dancing and they’re smiling and they’re laughing. It’s really incredible.”

Christian Motley, the 250Lex May Ambassador for Diversity Month, said the events in May and throughout the year celebrating the city’s anniversary give Lexingtonians a moment to recognize where we as a city are and where we’ve come from, as well as to reflect on what it will take to get us through the next 250 years. He said he hopes this month offers everyone the opportunity to see what makes the city so special.

“I encourage folks to attend one of the events this month, and to talk to someone you haven’t talked to before,” he said. “This celebration of Lexington’s 250-year history is full of many stories of the people and cultures that make the city unique. This is an opportunity for people to take a beat, look around and appreciate the place we live in, and the many voices that made it what it is.”

Have a question or story idea related to Lexington’s 250-year history? Let us know at 250LexKy@gmail.com.