Miramar's Free Afro-Carib Festival Closes Reggae Month with Caribbean Culture

Steel Pulse brought their decades of socially conscious roots reggae to Miramar Regional Park Amphitheater on February 28, headlining the city's 5th Annual Afro-Carib Festival and closing out South Florida's Reggae Month with five hours of Caribbean and African-derived music, food, and culture — all free to the public.

The City of Miramar presented the festival in partnership with the Broward Cultural Council and Memorial Healthcare System, with Commissioner Carson "Eddy" Edwards serving as the official event host. Emcee Jody Ann Gray held down the stage between performances while 99 Jamz' She-J Hercules kept the crowd moving during set breaks.

Alongside Steel Pulse, the bill featured Shuga, Gumby Navedo and Band, Naomi Cowan, Visions Band, and Teflon King, with Kr8ive Uprising Dancers rounding out the performance roster. The genres on offer stretched well beyond a single flag: reggae and dancehall shared the stage with afrobeats, soca, konpa, and reggaeton, a cross-cultural spread that reflected the festival's core premise. "Festivalgoers can expect unforgettable live performances spanning reggae, afrobeats, konpa, reggaeton, and more, creating an immersive celebration of rhythm, movement, and sound," the festival's official site described ahead of the event.

Running from 6 pm to 11 pm at 16801 Miramar Parkway, the festival also offered a marketplace of vendors selling novelty items, art, and merchandise rooted in African culture, alongside food and drink stalls serving Caribbean and African-inspired cuisine. Cultural displays and local businesses showcasing Afro-Caribbean products and crafts filled out the grounds.

Commissioner Edwards put the event's purpose plainly: "The Afro-Carib Fest is a beautiful reflection of who we are as a community by celebrating the cultures, creativity, and contributions of the African & Caribbean Diaspora with music, food and pride."

The festival was launched in 2020 by the City of Miramar. The official festival site credits the founding specifically to then-Commissioner Alexandra P. Davis as its originating initiative. Either way, it has grown steadily since, becoming one of Miramar's signature annual events and pulling audiences from across South Florida each February, where its timing at the intersection of Black History Month and Reggae Month gives the programming its distinct double purpose.

"The Afro-Carib Festival honors the powerful cultural bonds forged through African ancestry — bonds that have given rise to vibrant expressions of music, dance, art, and cuisine across the Caribbean," the festival site noted, capturing the ethos that has anchored the event across its five editions.

For a genre whose message has always moved through diaspora and displacement, there is something fitting about a free, open-air stage in South Florida — one of the most Caribbean-dense corners of the United States — closing out Reggae Month with Steel Pulse's roots and a lineup built across every branch of the African-Caribbean musical tree.