{"id":267479,"date":"2026-08-18T11:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T11:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/267479\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T11:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T11:36:07","slug":"40-years-later-phillys-caribbean-festival-is-still-thriving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/267479\/","title":{"rendered":"40 years later, Philly\u2019s Caribbean festival is still thriving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                    \u2018I like to see the smiles\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Wilson said she loves the fun festival elements like food and music, but her favorite part is its scholarship program. Each year, the committee gives scholarships to Caribbean and Caribbean American university students. The scholarships are funded by festival proceeds and outside organizations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI like to see the smiles on the faces of those who receive the scholarship,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cThis year, we have 30 people applying for scholarships. We were able, through other organizations, to donate scholarships. We are giving 15 of them out of the 30.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-750318\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Philadelphia-Caribbean-Festival-2026-6.jpg\" alt=\"Students onstage are awarded scholarships for education and living expenses at the 40th annual Philadelphia Caribbean Festival\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\"  \/>Students are awarded scholarships for education and living expenses at the 40th annual Philadelphia Caribbean Festival. The scholarships were funded by festival proceeds and outside organizations. (Courtesy of Barbara Wilson)<\/p>\n<p>The scholarships, Wilson said, are not limited to certain costs, and each student has the freedom to decide whether to use it for education or living costs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s at least just to help them with either their apartment or if they have books to buy and things like that,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cWe make it undetected scholarships. We don\u2019t send it to say, \u2018Well, you have to put it against their tuition.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the festival, Caribbean nonprofits were located between vendors and spoke to attendees about their causes. One of these nonprofits was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ignitechangeja.com\/meet-our-team\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ignite Jamaica Fund<\/a>, a Philadelphia-based organization that promotes academic growth in Jamaica and for youth across the Jamaican diaspora.<\/p>\n<p>Kimisha Simpson, founder and CEO of the fund, said she was at the festival to raise funds for their students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do work in Jamaica [and] overseas for primary and secondary students, also tertiary students, basically enhancing educational needs,\u201d Simpson said. \u201cSometimes that looks like school supplies. Sometimes that looks like technology resources, paying tuition fees, the cost of lunch, or other times that may look like virtual programming for workforce development.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Festival proceeds are also donated to nonprofits and charities for causes like hurricane aid and bereavement support. The hard work that goes into the festival, Wilson said, is one reason why it\u2019s thrived for so many years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not just getting up one day and saying, \u2018Okay, two months from now we\u2019re having a festival,\u2019 and we just rush to do things. We really organize it, and I think that\u2019s what makes it last this long and very successful,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018I like to see the smiles\u2019 Wilson said she loves the fun festival elements like food and music,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6033,14714,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-267479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-culture","tag-haiti","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}