Juneteenth Heritage Festival returns this Weekend

The Queen City’s Annual Juneteenth Celebration commemorating the announcement of the ending of slavery will be taking place right here once again on the City Hall Lawn. Terrance Davis the Cultural Affairs Coordinator tells us what we can expect.

"This year's Juneteenth festival is going to be very special and very different this year. We're doing three days, of which starting June 17th, through June 19th. We celebrate Juneteenth because this is a day that the slaves were told that they were emancipated," said Davis.

The celebration kicks off on June 17th with the Black Business Expo at Dumont Plaza and the celebration will continue on the City Hall Lawn Saturday and Sunday.

Davis stated, "The celebration will continue on city hall lawn gates will open at 5:00 and a concert will begin from 6:00 to 10:00 with Arthur Young. We want to make note that there have been some changes. There will be no coolers, no backpacks, and no bags. Security will be strictly enforced."

The event will wrap up on Sunday with a Jubilee Celebration Parade starting at Singing Brakeman Park and ending at the Temple theatre.

"We will also honor some of our trailblazers in the community that day immediately after the play. And we ask everyone to come out, be a part and be a part of celebrating, commemorating, and making sure that we are a community that's bound together."

Davis says that he hopes everyone comes out to attend the celebration and is happy to be able to have the celebration in The Queen City.

"I think it feels good any time that we can take the time to learn about each one of our cultures. It brings us closer to our community and brings our community together because those things that we don't know sometimes we're fearful of and we don't have to be fearful of things that we know when we're coming together," stated Davis