Evansville Cultural Experience brings back Family Day
What began as a neighborhood barbecue during the pandemic has grown into one of Evansville’s largest community celebrations. Now, Evansville Cultural Experience founders Philip Baker and Sharnetta Sharp are preparing to revive Family Day in the Park—and they want the entire community involved.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a handful of neighbors in the Glenwood area started organizing a barbeque. The idea was simple, they would play games, put some food on the grill and fellowship. As the word spread, the idea grew into one of Evansville’s most anticipated community celebrations-the annual Juneteenth Community Block Party.
The Evansville Cultural Experience (ECE), the grassroots organization behind the celebration, is now taking on another community tradition: Family Day in the Park.
For founders Philip Baker and Sharnetta Sharp, the journey started with a desire to bring neighbors together. “We just wanted to have a barbecue,” they recalled. “We were going to invite our neighbors from Ridgeway and Wagner Avenue, listen to music, eat together, and celebrate Juneteenth.”
That small gathering, held in the Glenwood neighborhood around 2020 during the pandemic, quickly evolved. What was expected to be a neighborhood cookout expanded to include food vendors, live entertainment, poetry, and local businesses. Community members immediately asked for it to become an annual tradition.
From the beginning, the event was designed to do more than celebrate Juneteenth.
Baker, Sharp, and their committee wanted to create opportunities for small businesses, especially those struggling during the pandemic, and introduce residents to other organizations and resources serving the community.
Many vendors were launching businesses for the first time during COVID-19, making the festival one of their earliest opportunities to connect with customers.
“We wanted to showcase and highlight them,” Sharp said. “People who had never vended before or had just started a business got to showcase their products and talents.”
Baker or Sharp had experience planning large-scale events. Over the past several years, they have learned through trial and error—adjusting schedules, listening to vendors, and continuously refining the experience.
At one point, Juneteenth had expanded into a three-day festival. While successful, organizers realized the format placed too much strain on vendors who spent long hours outdoors in the summer heat. They eventually scaled the celebration back to a single day and later relocated it to Bayard Park, where additional shade and space created a more comfortable environment while preserving the neighborhood atmosphere that had become part of the event’s identity.
Before making the move, organizers met with the Bayard Park Neighborhood Association to hear residents’ concerns and gain community support.
“We’ve learned that when you’re coming into someone’s neighborhood, you knock on the door first,” they said. “The neighbors have been really great. They come out, they participate, and it’s been a great experience.”
This year’s Juneteenth celebration appeared to reach another level.
Attendees described an energy that felt different from previous years, something organizers credit to increased community participation and stronger collaboration with local organizations.
“It was just a feel-good experience,” Sharnetta said. “The community came together, supported one another, enjoyed good food, music, youth performances, and quality time together.”
That momentum didn’t go unnoticed.
Following the success of Juneteenth, community members, WEOA radio personality Ed Landers, and Evansville Mayor Stephanie Terry encouraged the organization to revive another longtime Evansville tradition: Family Day in the Park.
“It was an honor,” Sharp said. “For all those parties—including the community—to call for us to do it.”
Scheduled for September 5 at Bayard Park, the event is designed to feel like a giant family reunion.
In addition to food vendors, live entertainment, retail vendors and nonprofit organizations, organizers are planning field-day competitions including kickball, relay races, tug-of-war, card tournaments, chess, spades, Uno, and other family-friendly activities.
“We want families to come out,” Sharp said. “This is the biggest Evansville family reunion we’ve ever had.”
A kickoff event is also planned for August 8 at Bellemeade Park, where families and organizations can begin signing up for competitions.
Although Evansville Cultural Experience continues to grow, planning responsibilities still largely fall on just two people-Baker and Sharp.
To make Family Day in the Park successful, organizers are asking nonprofits to become active participants rather than simply staffing information tables.
Instead, organizations are encouraged to referee games, host activities, manage competitions and build relationships with residents throughout the day.
“We want everybody up from behind tables this year,” Baker said. “Getting information out is important, but building relationships with the community is just as important.”
This year also marks another milestone.
After several years operating informally, Evansville Cultural Experience officially became a nonprofit organization. The decision wasn’t made quickly.
“We fought it,” Baker admitted. “For four years we didn’t even give ourselves a name because we never wanted it to be about us. We wanted it to feel like it was for the people and by the people.”
Ultimately, organizers realized formalizing the organization was necessary to continue growing, strengthen partnerships and expand their impact. “We’ve grown to a point where, in order to continue helping more people, we had to,” he said.
For Baker and Sharp, their mission remains simple: create positive spaces where people gather, support local businesses, discover community resources and celebrate the culture that already exists throughout Evansville.
“So much negativity spreads faster than positivity,” Baker said. “We’re just doing our best to shine a light on all the positivity we know exists in our community.”
Evansville Cultural Experience is currently accepting vendor applications and will soon open registration for Family Day teams and volunteers.
More information is available on the organization’s Facebook page or at evansvilleculturalexperience.com.
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