Five cooks will face off in a blind taste test for a $1,000 prize and serious bragging rights when Orlando's first-ever Afro Food Fest takes over Festival Park next weekend, bringing African food, fashion, and live music to the Milk District for a full day of programming. The festival runs from noon to 7 p.m. on September 5, with food and merchandise vendors selling dishes and goods representing flavors from across the continent.
The event is the brainchild of Timothy Adebule, a Nigerian native and 30-year Orlando business owner who runs Three Masks, a gallery, event venue, and tour-group base at 1023 W. Colonial Drive. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Adebule said African cuisine is underrepresented in Orlando, noting that many people cook African food at home and do not often eat it at restaurants. He said he hopes the festival will give more people deeper exposure to African culture.
The timing carries extra weight this year. As The Community Paper has reported, Three Masks has been serving Central Florida since Adebule established the business in 1996, meaning the inaugural outdoor food fest lands during the gallery's 30th anniversary year. Three Masks originally opened near the site of the present-day Kia Center before relocating to West Colonial Drive.
A Jollof Rice Rivalry Moves Outdoors
The festival's centerpiece is a jollof rice competition featuring five contestants who will cook their dishes on site before presenting them to judges in a blind tasting, per the Sentinel's reporting. Guests will also receive free samples from each competitor. Jollof rice is a one-pot dish made by simmering rice in a rich, spiced tomato-and-pepper stew base, and while it originates from Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria are credited with popularizing it across the diaspora.
This year's contestants represent Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, and Liberia, alongside Shantell Williams, who will represent both America and Sierra Leone. Although the outdoor festival itself is new, the cook-off is not: Three Masks has hosted the competition for three years, according to the same Sentinel account, building a friendly local tradition around a dish tied to a broader regional culinary debate often called the Jollof Wars. The dish's stature extends well beyond Central Florida — UNESCO officially inscribed Senegalese jollof rice, known locally as Ceebu Jën, onto its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2021, recognizing origins tracing back to 19th-century Saint-Louis, Senegal.
A Sanford Chef's Road Back to the Kitchen
Williams brings her own story of resilience to the competition. The Sanford restaurant owner sustained traumatic injuries in a motorcycle crash during Daytona Bike Week in March 2026, and according to WKMG ClickOrlando, she walked out of inpatient rehab roughly two months later. She has since transitioned her 13-year-old downtown Sanford soul food restaurant, Shantell's Just Until, bringing on new business partners as she recovered.
Music, Dance and Vendors Fill Festival Park
Beyond the food, organizers have lined up live performances all day, including a Latin jazz band, a Puerto Rican all-women drum troupe, a Mexican dance group, and African cultural performances. The lineup reflects the festival's stated aim of bringing together Afro nationals, Afro-Latinos, Afro-Caribbeans, African-Americans, and others through food, culture, and fashion, per the Sentinel. Vendors will also sell African clothing, accessories, and other merchandise, and at press time the festival was still accepting vendor applications for food and merchandise booths.
Among the confirmed food vendors is Suyabite, a West African street food operation that shares the same 1023 W. Colonial Drive premises as Three Masks. The vendor specializes in flame-grilled, peanut-spiced suya — a traditional West African skewered meat dish made with beef, lamb, and chicken.
Festival Park sits on 16 acres of city-owned public parkland at 2911 East Robinson Street in Orlando's Milk District, a space that regularly hosts large municipal food and cultural gatherings. Admission runs $15 for attendees ages 11 and older, while children 10 and younger get in free; food and beverages are sold separately, and the jollof rice competition itself will award bragging rights along with the $1,000 cash prize.
Three Decades of Pan-African Advocacy in Orlando
Three Masks has long functioned as more than a gallery. The 6,000-square-foot storefront off West Colonial Drive hosts African drumming classes, capoeira lessons, and custom garment fittings connected to tailors in Nigeria and Ghana, according to The Community Paper, which reported that Adebule founded the venue after observing a lack of authentic African-owned art spaces in the region in the mid-1990s. Adebule's profile also extends into the theme-park world — Walt Disney World featured him at Disney Springs' Art of Disney gallery during its 2022 Celebrate Soulfully Black History Month event, according to the Disney Food Blog.
Organizers are marketing the Labor Day weekend event as a regional draw, targeting audiences from Tampa, Ocala, Gainesville, Daytona, and Kissimmee, not just metro Orlando. The push fits a broader statewide pattern: South Florida's Taste of AfriKin festival also takes place during Labor Day weekend, combining African food, art, and music in North Miami as part of the region's Miami Spice Month programming.
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