5 questions with Charles Kuykendoll – The Tennessee Tribune

By Janice Malone

Before the rise of club culture and designated sections, house parties were the hotspot for feel good vibes and feel-good dancing. Blavity Media Group’s new event series is restoring all the great things we love and enjoy about house parties, with the Blavity House Party festival. Nashville will be the host city for this inaugural event on June 14 & 15 at the Municipal Auditorium. Featured headliners include Lil Wayne and Monica, along with a genre-spanning lineup of today’s buzzing stars, such as Grammy-award winning R&B singer Victoria Monét, LA rapper Blxst, legendary R&B group Dru Hill, Jamaica’s dancehall it-girl Shenseea, New Orleans star Big Freedia, and more. The first-ever Blavity House Party comes to Nashville Municipal Auditorium during Juneteenth weekend. This event follows up Blavity’s recent 2nd Annual Pre-GRAMMY Party and All-Star House Party earlier this year.

Blavity’s GM of Community Charles Kuykendoll, shares more about the upcoming festival in these 5 questions.

TRIBUNE: Tell us about some of the musical guests for the festival.

Kuykendoll: Along with Grammy winner Victoria Monet, there’s Dru Hill, Ryan Leslie, Monica, BLXST, Uncle Waffles, Big Freedia and more. There’s something for nearly everyone’s music tastes. If you’re a part of the diaspora, we want to have an act that can really align with the type of music that you enjoy listening to.

TRIBUNE: Why Nashville?

Kuykendoll: I think the real question is, why not Nashville? From a music perspective, Nashville is just so rich. There’s so much music history here. We thought being a city with all of this connectivity to surrounding areas, Nashville just felt right for this. The people are so warm and friendly. And the food is just awesome! It’s also a destination a lot of people have never been to. And so, we are excited to build this festival in the Nashville community.

TRIBUNE: In addition to great music, explain how local black owned businesses and vendors will benefit from the festival.

Kuykendoll: Absolutely. This is not just a traditional music festival. We’re using music as a medium to build community. And that’s really what Blavity Inc. Is all about. We’ve partnered up with the city to give us some suggestions for some local small black owned businesses that will also be partnering with us. These vendors will be selling their merchandise during the festival at the Municipal Auditorium. We’re excited to partner up with all of these different businesses across the Nashville ecosystem. We want to amplify the amazing work they’re already doing, and hopefully be able to generate new customers locally, and from around the country.

TRIBUNE: In addition to the music festival, tell us about the events on June 13th and 16th.

Kuykendoll: Absolutely. We will have four days of events. The actual festival will be two days (June 14 & 15), but we have activities happening on Thursday, June 13th and Sunday June 16th. It will be Father’s Day, so we’ll have some brunch, and other events.

TRIBUNE: Sounds like a good event for fans to show off their ‘black cowboy culture’ styles.

Kuykendoll: Yes! I’m planning my outfit now. We just received some Blavity House Party merch specifically for the festival that actually just dropped this week at our website. We ask Tribune readers if they want tickets, merchandise and more information, please visit our website www.BlavityHouseParty.com