One of the state's biggest Juneteenth events, is celebrating five years in Lexington.

Soul feast is a week long celebration of black entrepreneurship, a culinary artistry and community.

We caught up with one of the co-founders of the event to see what they're serving up this year.

It was 2020 by twin brother and Marcella Sparks.

Soul and I.

We were at living at home.

You know, racial injustice was at its height and I really wanted to do something.

So I started the hashtag 19 Days of Black Biz Challenge.

For 19 days leading up to Juneteenth in 2020, I supported a different black owned business, took it a step further, and did like this Lexington Black owned business directory.

And I've always had a passion for food and agriculture and Marcellus jokes.

We've been throwing parties since we were ten, literally.

So we wanted a way to kind of culminate that.

And so each week was born.

We're celebrating five years of.

So it's really hard to believe it, especially right in line with Lexington 250th anniversary.

So a lot of the same events, but they're bigger and better.

We have events June 19th through the 22nd, and also our Black Restaurant Week, the 23rd through the 29th.

So the Black Restaurant Week, the participating restaurants will have a $15 off menu entree with at least one ingredient sourced directly from black soil, Kentucky.

And as somebody who was born and raised in Lexington, I didn't really look at it as a culinary destination until I first moved back and I was like, oh, we have some really great restaurants and a diverse array of restaurants.

And, we know it's hard to be a restaurant order owner, particularly a black restaurant owner.

So we're really trying to, you know, equip people with resources, and things in order to help their businesses thrive.

It's just kind of become a family thing.

And so that's kind of how we spend our June when Sophie's week comes up, I know, clear my calendar because I want to be there for them and help them be successful while they help me be successful.

I know sometimes people ask, you know your real estate, if you're in real estate, what are you doing sponsoring or spending so much time with, an event like Soul Feast?

But what really attracted us to it was, first of all, as Martina said, they saw the issue.

They saw a problem, and they wanted to act.

They wanted to do something.

We're really supporting businesses, we're supporting entrepreneurs, and we're really supporting the people right here from the community.

We're able to bring the community all together and highlight what's possible within our community.

To all of Lexington.

You will have great company.

You will have great food, great music, and just a great opportunity to be involved in Lexington as a community.

Black Restaurant Weeks exists that are similar to your Taco Week or burger weeks, but in combination with a lot of events, you don't really see that often.

And I think it is help putting not only Lexington on the map, but Kentucky on the map in a major way, with how we're looked at from people around the country and around the world.

For more information on Soul Feast Week, you can go to Soul Feast, Wycombe.