Ten Years of Dashiki. Thank You for Coming!!!
- Kehinde Alagbe
- 15 hours ago
- 3 min read
The park was FULL. And you were there.
That is the only way to start this. Because if you were at Centennial Center Park on August 29, you do not need us to describe what happened. You felt it. The moment you walked through and the music hit you before you even found your spot. The smell of food from across the African continent. The colors. The crowd. The energy of thousands of people who all made the same decision that morning: to show up, to celebrate, and to be part of something.
That something was the 10th Annual Colorado Dashiki Festival. And it was everything.
Ten years is not a small number.
When the Colorado Dashiki Festival started, it began with a belief that African culture in Colorado deserved more than a footnote. It deserved a stage, a crowd, a full summer afternoon where the community could come together and celebrate everything that makes it worth celebrating.
Ten years later, that belief has become one of the most anticipated events on Colorado's cultural calendar. What started as a grassroots gathering has grown into a festival that fills a park, draws thousands of attendees, and gives African food, fashion, art, music, and performance a platform that is impossible to ignore.
August 29, 2026, was the 10th edition. And you helped us mark it in a way we will not forget.
The vendor market was alive with flavor and culture; food that had people going back for seconds and third helpings, fashion that made you stop and look twice, artisan goods from across the African diaspora that carried stories in every stitch and every piece. The stage was electric from the moment the first performer stepped on it, and the Dashiki Fashion Show crowned our 2026 Dashiki Queen in front of a crowd that was fully, loudly, joyfully present for the moment.
But what made August 29 truly special wasn't any one performer, vendor, or moment on the stage. It was the people. It was you, who dressed up, showed out, brought your families, your children, your grandparents, your friends who had never been before and are already planning to come back next year. It was the first-timers standing wide-eyed at the entrance, and the ones who have been coming since the very beginning, watching the festival grow into what it is now. It was the children running through the splash pad at Centennial Center Park while their parents danced to the music nearby, nobody having to choose between what they wanted and what the family needed. Everyone got their afternoon.
That is what ten years of building looks like. And we are proud of every single one of them.
The Career and Networking Expo — August 21
One week before the festival, something equally powerful happened at the Community College of Aurora. The Career and Networking Expo brought job seekers and hiring managers together in one room, and the energy in that space was everything we hoped it would be. Conversations happened. Connections were made. Resumes found the right hands. For a lot of people who walked through those doors, something genuinely moved forward that evening, and that matters deeply to us.
Building pathways for this community is at the heart of what CAICC does. The expo was not just an event. It was proof that when you put the right people in a room together, opportunity follows.
What comes next.
CAICC is not slowing down. If anything, August has only reminded us of what is possible when this community decides to show up. There is more being built, more events being planned, and more opportunities coming for the people who make up this community.
Stay close. Follow us on Instagram at @caiccenter and on Facebook and LinkedIn. You will not want to miss what is next.
If you attended either the festival or the expo, we would love to hear from you. What did you love? What could be better? What do you want to see more of? Your feedback is how we keep growing, and it takes less than two minutes.
Share your feedback here:
Thank you for ten years. Thank you for August 29. Thank you for showing up.
With so much gratitude,
The CAICC Team
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