Festival returns to Fremont Street Experience

A Black History Month festival is returning to the Fremont Street Experience one year after the attraction's casinos skipped on hosting the event and said it didn't draw enough business.

Organizer Charles Tureaud said that this weekend's festival will include heavyweight boxers Leon Spinks and Ken Norton, who will sign autographs and help coordinate the free event.

The return to Fremont Street is a turnaround from last year, when the event was moved to a strip mall a few miles away and organizers complained the Fremont Street Experience was unwelcoming.

Tureaud said that Fremont Street officials indicated during meetings about the event that they realize the importance of the event to the community.

The festival, titled Tastes and Sounds of Soul, is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday. It includes food vendors, cultural arts and crafts and other activities.