The Collective Minds Festival is a celebration of house music. In Baltimore, where dance music and Black club culture are so important, events like Collective Minds are a chance to celebrate. It’s always free and open to dancers of all ages. This year it was held on September 3 at Pearlstone Retreat Center. This year’s event included performances by Ultra Nate, DJ Biskit, Uzoma, and Dawn Tallman. 

This celebration marked Collective Minds’ nineteenth anniversary, and was the first in-person version of the festival since COVID-19 shut everything down more than two years ago. In the past, it’s been held at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and Druid Hill Park.

Collective Minds Festival is Baltimore house music’s family reunion, a chance to see people who look, dance, and think like you. That is especially important because dance venues where house music used to thrive, like the Paradox, are gone. 

Photos by Schaun Champion and Cameron Snell.

Teri Henderson is the Arts and Culture Editor of Baltimore Beat. She is the author of the 2021 book Black Collagists. Previously, she was a staff writer for BmoreArt, gallery coordinator for Connect +...