The Juneteenth Festival in Columbus will celebrate its 25th year this summer with an expanded, more than weeklong series of events, including a Freedom Ball and a Greek show to be held at the Trotter Convention Center.
The festival began in 1996, according to District 5 Lowndes County Supervisor Leroy Brooks, who, along with Lowndes County Emergency Management Agency Director Cindy Lawrence, is the primary organizer. The event was not held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making this year the de facto 25th anniversary.
The event is usually held over a weekend, but this year will stretch from June 10-20, Brooks told Columbus City Council on Tuesday.
“Everybody’s been locked up and are just looking for something to do,” Brooks said. “It’s not just about Juneteenth; it’s about a renaissance in cultural activities to give people something to do.”
In addition to the lockdown and the local festival’s anniversary, Juneteenth was declared a national holiday in 2021, Brooks said. All of that together has led local organizers to pull out all the stops for this year’s event.
The cost of putting on Juneteenth will be much higher this year due to both the expanded plans and the increased cost of pretty much everything from food to entertainers. Brooks estimated that the “$20,000 to $22,000” cost of earlier events has ballooned to north of $40,000 this year.
One of the primary drivers is that the performers cost much more than they once did.
“Usually we spend around $6,000. (Now) we’re looking at $12,500 now,” Brooks said. “We’ve never had to pay that much, but they’re trying to make up for what they lost (during the pandemic). With two major acts, we’re also looking at renting them 14 (hotel) rooms and feeding about 20 people.”
To try to make the money they have go further, Brooks asked the city council Tuesday night to let Juneteenth have the Trotter Convention Center free of charge for two nights to accommodate some planned events. This caused a minor discussion among the council members, as the city is currently designing a policy to regulate which nonprofits and community organizations get a break on fees and which don’t.
City Attorney Jeff Turnage explained the city could make an exception for Juneteenth because the city donates money to it as part of the interlocal agreement with Lowndes County, the Golden Triangle Development LINK and the Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The event, along with Market Street, the Townsend Southside Blues Festival and the Seventh Avenue Heritage Festival, receives $15,000 annually from 2-percent tourism tax revenue.
“Those are all … part of the local and private legislation,” Turnage said. “If you want to say because of that allocation that this is a sponsorship, you can narrow it down to those four. If you’re not careful we’re going to have a lot of people asking for in-kind services or money.”
Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones moved, with a second from Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard, to let Juneteenth use the Trotter for free for the requested events. It passed 4-2, with Ward 1 Councilwoman Ethel Taylor Stewart and Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene voting no.
Brooks said this would be a one-time request on the part of Juneteenth.
“We don’t plan to come back annually,” he said.
Planned festivities
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers made it to Galveston, Texas, to deliver the news to enslaved Blacks that they were free.
The local celebration will kick off with a Freedom Ball held at the Trotter on June 10.
“We’ll have a live band and probably serve some kind of light hors d’oeuvres,” Brooks said. “People will be allowed to bring in their own alcohol. We don’t want to get into (selling liquor) and all that.”
The ball will be “three of four hours” long, he said.
“Our target is to sell 200 tickets,” he said. “Anything past that is gravy.”
On June 14, a program on African American history in Columbus will be put on at the Rosenzweig Art Center.
“We’re working with (Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science history teacher) Chuck Yarborough about the history of Black Columbus,” Brooks said. “We will also hope to bring people together who were some of the first to change the dynamics of the community.”
Other events will include a kid-centered activity at Sim Scott Park and a Greek show at the Trotter featuring African American fraternities and sororities from Mississippi State University and some of the historically Black colleges and universities.
“We debated on how to do something to reach young folks, and they like Greek shows,” Brooks said.
The festival itself will be held June 17 and 18 at Sim Scott Park, with a parade from the Farmers Market down Main Street to the Municipal Complex at 10 a.m. Festivities will wrap up with a church picnic at Sim Scott Park on June 20.
The Juneteenth Festival is accepting donations. For more information contact Brooks at 662-251-8125 or Lawrence at 662-328-2491.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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