The 43 year old festival, a brain child of William Carver Lenard, had its beginning in 1981 at the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site. The festival was first held in front of The George Washington Carver Museum on the Campus Avenue of Tuskegee Institute now Tuskegee University. 2024 makes the18th year that the festival has been held in historic downtown Tuskegee, Alabama.