25th Juneteenth Festival celebrates Freedom Day with music, dancing, art and more

African American history and culture took center stage last weekend as thousands of people gathered at Innovation Quarter for the city’s 25th annual Juneteenth Festival.  Juneteenth is the celebration of the country’s longest-running observance of the abolition of slavery. On June 19, 1885, soldiers rode into Galveston, Texas, to announce that slavery had been officially abolished, nearly three years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth became a national holiday in 2021 and is celebrated on June 19.  The City of Winston-Salem has been holding a Juneteenth Festival since 1999 and Triad Cultural Arts, Inc. has been hosting the event since 2004. The festival as we know it today, was first held at Winston Lake Family YMCA. From there the festival moved to the Benton Convention Center before finding its current home in Innovation Quarter a few years ago.  Along with dozens of vendors, performances, and of course food, the festival also included health displays and information sessions, arts and crafts for children, and several speakers throughout the day. The festival also featured a Safe Bus Tour, which provided transportation for African Americans in Winston-Salem from the 1920s until the early 1970s. To jump-start the celebration last Saturday,...