Taste of Soul LA 2026

Taste of Soul is one of the largest street festivals in Los Angeles, held annually on a Saturday in October along Crenshaw Boulevard between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Leimert Park Village. The festival has been running for over two decades and draws more than 300,000 people in a single day. The format is a mile-plus of street vendors, restaurant booths, live music stages, a car show, health screenings, and community organization presence. The food is the center of it: every major Black-owned restaurant in South LA has a presence, and the smell of barbecue, catfish, and soul food covers the entire stretch of Crenshaw. Taste of Soul was founded by the Los Angeles Sentinel, the oldest Black-owned newspaper in California, and it remains a community institution. The crowd is multigenerational, neighborhood-rooted, and enormous. This is Leimert Park and Crenshaw at their fullest. The festival is free to attend. Crenshaw closes to traffic for the day. Metro K Line (Crenshaw/LAX Line) stops at Leimert Park Village — this is the easiest way in and out. Arrive early if you want to move; by noon the crowds are deep.