After public clash over Atlanta’s support, Invest Fest and Mayor Andre Dickens talk 2027
TheGrio...
The Earn Your Leisure founders welcomed Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens to Invest Fest as both sides signaled a willingness to move beyond their recent dispute and discuss the festival’s future in the city.
What started as a very public disagreement over Atlanta’s support of Invest Fest may be turning into something more productive.
As the sixth annual Invest Fest got underway in Atlanta this weekend, Earn Your Leisure founders Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings welcomed Mayor Andre Dickens to the festival stage, signaling that tensions between the financial education platform and the city may be easing.
The moment comes just weeks after Bilal and Millings openly questioned whether Invest Fest was getting enough support from Atlanta, the city it has called home since its launch.
During a recent appearance on “The Breakfast Club,” the pair said they had considered taking the festival elsewhere because of what Millings described as a puzzling “lack of support” from the city. Bilal later told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Invest Fest organizers had previously met with members of Dickens’ administration and believed a larger partnership was developing, but said several conversations did not lead to concrete action.
Dickens responded publicly, appearing to reference the criticism while speaking at a separate Atlanta event.
“If you support this city, we support you back,” the mayor said at Hank Stewart’s White Linen Affair, according to the AJC, before adding, “So put that on your podcast!”
That exchange sparked a wider conversation about what cities owe major Black cultural and business events, particularly when those events attract thousands of visitors, entrepreneurs and vendors.
But this weekend, the temperature appeared noticeably different.
“Here’s the thing. In a leadership capacity, you’re faced with two choices. You either build or destroy,” one of the Earn Your Leisure hosts told the Invest Fest crowd before introducing Dickens. “And in the great city of Atlanta, we wanna make sure that we continue to build bridges forward.”
Dickens then took the stage and leaned into the idea of partnership.
“Atlanta is a special place,” the mayor told attendees. “It’s one of one. It’s a unique place.”
He went even further when discussing what could come next, saying he and the Earn Your Leisure team planned to discuss “2027 Invest Fest” and future development and investment opportunities on Atlanta’s Southside.
“Are y’all ready to invest in the ATL?” Dickens asked the crowd.
Earn Your Leisure reinforced that conciliatory tone in an Instagram post following the appearance.
“Build Bridges not Walls, that’s what @investfestival is about,” the organization wrote. “Glad to be able to start meaningful conversations with @andreforatlanta about the future of the great city of Atlanta.”
The City of Atlanta also publicly embraced the festival this weekend, posting photos from Dickens’ appearance and declaring, “ATL, INVEST FEST IS HERE!” The city praised the gathering for bringing “thousands of entrepreneurs, investors, creators and business leaders” together to connect and build.
The shift is notable because the festival’s future in Atlanta had recently appeared uncertain.
Bilal and Millings told the AJC that they selected Atlanta because of its significance to Black business and because a large portion of Earn Your Leisure’s audience lives in the region. More than half of Invest Fest attendees come from metro Atlanta, according to Millings. The festival typically attracts roughly 20,000 to 25,000 attendees each day.
This year’s Invest Fest runs Aug. 7 through Aug. 9 at the Georgia World Congress Center, with programming centered on investing, real estate, taxes, cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, estate planning and entrepreneurship.
The festival also includes hundreds of small-business vendors, local food trucks and a startup pitch competition.
And despite the public friction, conversations between the two sides had already started reopening before the festival. Bilal told the AJC that Dickens’ chief of staff reached out following the Earn Your Leisure appearance on “The Breakfast Club.” At the time, he stressed that there were no concrete plans to move Invest Fest from Atlanta.
Now, with Dickens standing on the Invest Fest stage and both sides talking openly about 2027, the conversation appears to have shifted from whether the festival belongs in Atlanta to what a stronger partnership could actually look like.
For a festival built around ownership, investment and Black economic power, that next conversation may ultimately matter more than the disagreement that started it.