But while Mapes was planning the event early in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought things to a halt. Instead of letting that deter his vision, with the extra time, Mapes instead decided to expand it, when it was safe to do so.
“I decided to switch it up a little bit,” Mapes said.
“So instead of doing just a really dope concert, what if at that same event, we do a really dope fashion show? And in that same event, we do a really dope celebrity summit … and then I was like ‘what are we gonna call this thing?’ Industry Fest.”
And what better person to help Mapes bring this vision to life than his wife, prominent social media influencer, Randi Rossario, who hosted many of the panels during the two-day festival.
Industry Fest was created to showcase and positively impact the culture. But sometimes defining exactly what “the culture” is can be difficult. For Rossario? It’s not hard at all. The culture is Black culture.
“We put out everything. Not even just the best, but everything. Nothing moves without Black people. Period.” Rossario told rolling out.
“There’s such a stigma. You know? That It’s ‘loud and ghetto,’ ‘it’s ratchet’ … it is! It’s loud, ghetto, ratchet, quiet, fun, boujee, suburban, ‘hood, it’s all of that, mixed up together, and we have to be able to embrace that,” she said.
Great ways to embrace it are to promote and further it. Industry Fest did that and more. For more information and future updates, please visit Industryfest.com.
