Less than 2 miles up the road from where the Haitian national team stepped onto the field for its final match of the 2026 World Cup, hundreds of Haitian Americans gathered to cheer on their team.
Before the game against Morocco even kicked off Wednesday, Haiti knew this would be their last game of the tournament. They had already lost their first two matches against Scotland and Brazil, making it mathematically impossible for them to advance to the next round even if they had secured an upset against the 6th-ranked men’s team in the world.
“It doesn’t matter that we’re already eliminated,” Sergo Bellefleur said. “We haven’t been there in 52 years, so just to be there, part of the 48 teams, is enough.”
The 43-year-old hadn’t been born the last time Haiti played a World Cup match. So when he heard about Lakou Fet, the Haiti World Cup watch party at Westside Motor Lounge, he made the 6.5-hour drive from Orlando, Florida, to be here.
“I love Haiti, I love who I am, and I love being Haitian,” Bellefleur said. “This is another way to represent our culture, heritage, and show off the vibe we bring.”
In addition to the watch party, Lakou Fet featured Haitian food, a lineup of Haitian DJs, and vendors like Bellefleur selling Haiti-branded clothes, hats, and accessories. The idea to put together this celebration of Haitian culture and identity was born out of a conversation over the Christmas holiday between friends Skánia Florestal and Dudley Nosy, the event’s organizers.
“When we found out that Haiti was playing in the World Cup we were like, ‘Man, they’re going to be in our backyard. We have to do something,’ and that’s actually how the name Lakou even came about, because it means backyard in Haitian Creole,” Florestal said.
Growing up in Boston, Florestal was raised in a neighborhood largely made up of Haitian and other Caribbean immigrants. But since moving to Atlanta in 2008, she hasn’t experienced that same feeling of being surrounded by a tight-knit community.
“Whenever there’s Haitian events, they’re outside of the perimeter [in] Stone Mountain, Lawrenceville, Riverdale, and so it was important for me to do something in the heart of Midtown,” Florestal said.
Connecting with Florida-based Mojo Arts founder Joanne Joseph and director of music Kenny “DJ Magic Kenny” Laborde, they saw their plan grow over the next few months from an idea to a full-on festival with food, music, drinks, and, of course, a World Cup watch party.
Linda Audate Abdullah told Capital B Atlanta she had a similar experience to Florestal when moving to Atlanta 20 years ago from Orlando. Now, when she’s craving a connection to her community she visits La Difference Bakery and Cafe or La Citadelle Bakery, both in Lawrenceville.
Over the past few years, she said, she’s seen the Haitian community growing in metro Atlanta and credits events like Lakou Fet for helping to bring people together.
On Wednesday, she stopped by Bellefleur’s tent where he was selling hats with the Haitian flag, earrings handmade by a woman in Miami, and Haiti T-shirts and jerseys designed by his brother.
Abdullah selected a pair of heart-shaped earrings with the Haitian flag on them.
“I take every opportunity to wear the Haitian flag so people can ask me about it,” she said.
“As a Haitian and first-gen American, I feel like it’s our duty to help Americans understand our history and teach them that it’s part of American history, too — that’s why we have a statue in Savannah,” Abdullah said.
The statue standing in Savannah’s Franklin Square honors the Haitian soldiers of the Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue unit, which played a crucial role in helping American revolutionaries attempt to reclaim the city from British control in 1779.
“Haiti was the first Black free nation in the Western Hemisphere, that’s why still now they don’t want to let us be great,” Bellefleur said.
Just days before Haiti’s first match of this World Cup, FIFA forced the team to remove an image of the final battle of the Haitian war of independence from the front of its jerseys for being too political. This didn’t deter Haitian supporters who continue to openly express their pride in being the first nation to be successfully born from a slave revolt.
“Since we are born we are taught who we are,” Bellefleur said. “We’re the masters of our own fate. If I wasn’t Haitian, I would regret it.”
Sisters Gabrielle and Dominique Viard inherited that Haitian pride from their parents.
“We were the first to do it, and we helped other nations to gain independence,” Gabrielle said.
They saw Lakou Fet promoted on social media and decided to come with their cousins Emmanuella Joseph, Ludjie Cange and Ian Pellom, Cange’s fiancé.
“Even though our country is going through a difficult time right now, sports can bring people together,” Gabrielle said.
Haiti has struggled politically and economically since its early days as a sovereign nation, in part due to a vindictive debt of 150 million gold francs imposed by the French in 1825 and multiple U.S. interventions throughout the 20th century.
Despite Haiti’s 4-2 defeat, the crowd at Lakou Fet remained lively and upbeat throughout the match, a reminder that even just qualifying for the tournament was a major victory for the proud Caribbean community. While the World Cup provided the opportunity for this first Lakou Fet, Florestal is determined to make it an annual event.
“[Lakou Fet] is an opportunity for us to carve out space to be unapologetically Haitian,” she said. “We want our friends in the diaspora and other countries whose events we go to, to come to ours and feel welcome and at home the same way we feel welcome and feel at home at their events.”
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