Garfield Avenue Festival

Since 1998, the Garfield Avenue Festival has shined a spotlight on local music while dishing out some of the best soul food in the city. After modest beginnings as a blues festival, the free event has grown each year, adding more food vendors, more street performers, more visual artists, more activities and demonstrations for young children and more, above all, more music. The festival runs from noon to 8 p.m. today on Garfield Avenue between 4th and 7th Streets. New this year is a DJ stage, but the focus is still on traditional, blues- and jazz-derived American music, so it’s only fitting that this year’s event honors Harvey Scales, for years a fixture of the local R&B scene with his group, the Seven Sounds. Scales, who takes home the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award, co-wrote Johnnie Taylor’s hit single “Disco Lady” as well as tracks for artists like the O’Jays and The Dramatics.