This past weekend All 3 Coasts, known as A3C, had its annual hip-hop festival in Downtown Atlanta, from October 4-8, 2017. A3C is a two-part event spread about five days, worth of knowledge, culture, and networking.
The first three days kicked off with the weekend conference full of panels ranging from how to make beats, marketing and building your brand, and producer meet ups. You couldn’t leave out the women either! With appearances from Angela Ry, Amber Grimes, Janee Bolden, Angela Yee, and Karen Civil, the Women in Charge panel addressed issues women face in hip-hop along with entrepreneurship and innovation in the music industry.
In addition to the business and social aspects of music, the festival included the A3C Action Summit for Social Justice. The discussions in this part of the conference showed the vigilance and resistance that hip-hop and creative culture has displayed over the many decades. With conversations about mental health to police brutality to literature, the A3C Action Summit had appearances from leaders in the community to share their experiences and solutions on issues that remain prevalent in today’s society. Some of Georgia State University’s very own were in attendance, including Scott Health, Dr. Maurice Hobson, K. Juree Capers, Dr. Lakeyta M. Bonnette-Bailey, and Honey Simone.
The music festival wrapped up the last two days of A3C. With performances from Nas, Sonny Digital, Project Pat, Dave East, Just Blaze, Joyner Lucas, A-Trak, and so many more artists that embodied the All 3 Coasts experience.
We can’t sleep on the vendors! Swisher Sweets, Monster, Toyota Music, Boost Mobile, and Acid set up shop for attendees. You had a variety of food trucks for whatever cuisine you were in the mood for, and if you wanted your hair braided and nails done that was “poppin’” too, for free.
Attendees of the festival came from as far as Michigan and California to witness this next hip-hop legend. Sunday was a gloomy day but with Nas headlining the festival, he brought the crowd out with or without the rain. Performing some of his hits such as “One Mic,” “The World Is Yours,” and “Hate Me Now” he without a doubt closed the weekend out successfully. He even brought a fan on stage who stole the showing performing one of Nas’s songs, “Doo Rags.”
A3C was the place to be this past weekend. If Nas was heading the 2017 festival, how will 2018 top this year? Stay updated for next year by following the festival on Instagram, @a3cfestival. You can also join their mailing list on their website, a3cfestival.com for yearly events and updates as next year’s show rolls around.
All photos provided by A3C.