Kelly Rowland will headline the AIDS Walk Atlanta music festival on September 26

Kelly Rowland will headline the 35th AIDS Walk Atlanta Music Festival and 5K Run, held on September 26 at Piedmont Park. The Grammy-winning singer tops a bill that also carries the Atlanta R&B artist Algebra Blassett and DJ Sed, who open the music portion of the day.

The event is run by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and pairs a 5K walk and run with the festival that follows it. It raises more than a million dollars a year, distributed among twelve local HIV and AIDS service organisations in the Atlanta area.

Dr. Felicia Ivey, the foundation's Atlanta regional director, framed the day as awareness as much as fundraising. "This annual event offers a time to create a greater awareness of the impact of HIV and AIDS on the local Atlanta community," she said, describing it as a chance to bring thousands of people together from across the region.

Thirty-five editions is long enough to have built its own history of headliners. Lil Kim, Ludacris, Monica and Trina have all played it, a list that leans on Atlanta's own hip-hop and R&B lineage rather than importing names with no connection to the city.

Rowland fits that pattern without being from it. Booking a headliner with national reach for a charity festival is how these events move ticket volume, and the surrounding bill keeps the day rooted in Atlanta artists.

The lineup is filed under rnb-soul and pop, and the date sits on the festival tracker. Benefit bills have been a steady presence in our coverage, from a September fundraiser for the Hebden Bridge Folk Roots Festival to Kathleen Hanna and Ad-Rock cutting a cover for an anti-ICE benefit album.