World Famous Hip Hop Family Day Returns!
Koger Center for the Arts to host 2023 World Famous Hip-Hop Family Day on August 19
COLUMBIA, SC – June 13, 2023 – World Famous Hip Hop Family Day announces its return to the Columbia, SC, festival scene on Saturday, August 19, 2023. Celebrating 10 years of Hip Hop Family Day, the August date for this year’s festival is also designed to commemorate the 50th birthday of hip-hop culture, whose origin date is widely recognized as August 1973.
“This is the tenth year of our festival. It meant a lot to us to get back to things on the tenth year, but what pushed it over the top was that this is also the 50th anniversary of hip-hop originating in the South Bronx in 1973,” says FatRat da Czar, founder of World Famous Hip Hop Family Day.
Honored by Family Circle Magazine as the Top Family-Friendly Festival in South Carolina and among the Top 50 in the nation, World Famous Hip Hop Family Day was founded in 2013 to celebrate love, peace, unity, and having fun with the family.
As a highlight of this year’s 50th birthday celebration of hip-hop culture, Hip-Hop Family Day announces a new partnership and location: the Koger Center for the Arts at the University of South Carolina. Formerly held on the 1700 block of Columbia’s Main Street, World Famous Hip-Hop Family Day will make its 2023 return to the music festival scene with the Koger Center's outdoor stage and lawn as its new venue.
“This is the vision we had when we built the Koger Center’s outdoor stage: hosting thousands of people outside on the lawn for free and celebrating with the whole diverse community,” says Koger Center Director Nate Terracio. “Our goal, much like the goal of Love, Peace & Hip-Hop, is to make Columbia the kind of place we all want to live. We want to be a supporter of the arts community in general and we want more of these kinds of partnerships. We're so excited to be a part of this festival.”
Looking ahead to the next 10 years, the Hip Hop Family Day festival committee also announces Love, Peace & Hip-Hop's new community endeavor: The WEALTH Initiative.
“W.E.A.L.T.H. is an acronym that encompasses some of the most important components of true wealth: Wellness, Education, Alliances, Leadership, Technology, and History,” says Hip-Hop Family Day Festival Coordinator Janet Parenti. “We are excited to fully unveil over the next weeks and months how The WEALTH Initiative will work to help empower the communities and the families of South Carolina.”
Stay tuned for the 2023 World Famous Hip Hop Family Day headliner announcement on Saturday, July 1.
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World Famous Hip-Hop Family Day
World Famous Hip-Hop Family Day is an unforgettable celebration of music, art, and dance, historically drawing enthusiastic, engaged, and energetic audiences of up to 20,000 people. A FREE, family-friendly event, this black-owned and operated festival has partnered with respected national, state, and local entities like the City of Columbia, WellCare, HeadCount, AARP, US Army, Columbia Museum of Art, EdVenture Children’s Museum, and Richland Library, and now, the Koger Center for the Arts at the University of South Carolina.
Koger Center for the Arts at the University of South Carolina
Since its opening in 1989, the Koger Center for the Arts has hosted major national and international touring artists, strengthening the region's ability to attract acclaimed productions and luminaries from around the globe. As a cultural destination for audiences seeking diverse experiences in a lively and dynamic setting, the Koger Center features several local arts groups including the Columbia City Ballet, The South Carolina Philharmonic, and the Columbia Classical Ballet. From the very beginning, the University of South Carolina made it clear that local community needs would be addressed by establishing a mission of inclusion to support the programming and technical needs of local arts organizations. Through this communal approach, the Koger Center for the Arts has enhanced the surrounding community by increasing public awareness and understanding of the performing arts.
Hip-Hop Family Day Founder FatRat Da Czar
FatRat Da Czar is a recording artist and producer, entrepreneur, and hip-hop activist based out of Columbia, South Carolina. As a cornerstone of South Carolina hip-hop, Czar began his career in the late ’90s as a member of the Columbia-based rap group, Streetside. By 2012, he was an established solo act, releasing his acclaimed Da Cold War album trilogy under the name FatRat Da Czar. Czar is widely recognized as South Carolina’s godfather of hip-hop and has opened for national acts to include Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dogg, and Lauryn Hill.
In 2011, in response to a rap-music ban at a local venue, Czar co-founded Love, Peace & Hip-Hop to ensure proper representation of hip-hop culture. In 2013, Love, Peace & Hip-Hop established World Famous Hip Hop Family Day, a nationally-recognized (Family Circle, July 2018) music festival celebrating the origins of hip-hop to include the four pillars: deejaying, b-boying, graffiti, and emceeing. This free annual festival has delivered artists such as KRS-One, SugarHill Gang, Kid N Play, MC Lyte, and Big Daddy Kane to crowds of over 18,000 on Columbia’s Main Street.