The parade takes place next Friday (1st), starting at 7pm

The preparation for Afro Fashion Day (AFD) is in the final stages of preparation to host the blackest catwalk in Brazil. At Praça 2 de Julho, in Salvador, the space has already been taken over by the stages and structures that will make up the tenth edition of the event next Friday (1st). The parade will take place from 7pm, with free access through the entrance in front of the Castro Alves Theater.

After three editions at Terreiro de Jesus, inside Pelourinho, AFD changed the location of the parade to Largo do Campo Grande. This year’s structure is expected to be the largest in the history of the project created in 2015: the stage is 13 meters wide with a 75 meter long walkway, set up in front of the Caboclo Monument, in the center of the square.

According to Luciana Gomes, commercial and marketing manager at CORREIO, organizer of the event, the preparations are already 70% ready and should be completed by the day before the parade. “All that remains is to apply the tarpaulins and final adjustments to the lighting and sound structures,” he said. In addition to the stage and catwalk, the event will also feature spaces for People with Disabilities (PwD), brand activations, food stalls and lounges.

The expansion of the space and grandeur of the event takes place in celebration of AFD’s 10th anniversary, a project created to give visibility to Afro fashion. “Ten years ago, few media outlets gave importance to this black protagonism. CORREIO, always a pioneer, highlighted the importance of this form of beauty, protagonism, cultural production, music and style. Afro Fashion Day is a great source of pride, including the positive social impact it brings to the city of Salvador”, stated Luciana.

In addition to the size, the event’s production team also thought about the structure of the parade as a way of communicating with this edition’s theme: Music – Rescuing roots and elevating voices. “As this year’s theme is related to music, we thought about creating a catwalk that would appear from within the opening of a large stage. Musicians and models will share the same performance spaces”, explained Sandra Mazzoni, from GMF Arquitetos, the company that signed the AFD project.

The theme proposed this year will be divided into three blocks: Ancestral, Festive and Contemporary Percussion. Nelson Pereira, marketing and project analyst at CORREIO, told us about the selection process: “Several themes crossed our minds, but we felt we needed one that celebrated Afro Fashion Day. So, we decided to bring music to remember all our years of history, great achievements and work. We really want to bring what music there is to Bahia, to put on a show beyond the parade with the union of fashion and music.”

This year, almost 40 Bahian fashion brands and 75 models will be on the AFD catwalk. As expected by the CORREIO newspaper, around eight thousand people should attend the most diverse fashion exhibitions, honoring the aim of giving visibility to models, Bahian stylists and black designers linked to the fashion universe.

Afro Fashion Day is a project by the newspaper Correio with sponsorship from Avon and Bracell, support from CAIXA, Shopping Barra, Salvador Bahia Airport and Wilson Sons and institutional support from Sebrae and Salvador City Hall.