A long-running Columbus tradition will return when the annual Juneteenth festival kicks off on Friday.

Leroy Brooks, an event organizer and Lowndes County District 5 Supervisor, said this year marks the 20th Juneteenth festival.

Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. The holiday was born from the arrival of arrival of Union Maj. General Gordon Grangers arrival in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1965, with word that the Civil War was over and slaves were free.

Locally, Brooks said the Juneteenth celebration started as a small festival in 1996 that drew about 1,000 people. In the years since, it’s grown to a festival with regional appeal.

“In two nights, we’ll get 10,000 to 12,000 people,” Brooks said. “A lot of the people who come are from outside of Lowndes County or the state of Mississippi. People start calling early from Tennessee or Georgia. We get an extremely large number of people coming back from Georgia and especially the Atlanta area.”

This year’s festival will begin at 6 p.m. Friday at Sims Scott Park, and will feature live music. Brooks said Friday’s activities will last until about 10 p.m.

The festival will continue Saturday, with activities for youth starting at about noon and music and entertainment starting at 5-5:30 p.m. Brooks said Saturday’s festivities should last until around 11 p.m.

Brooks said the Juneteenth festival will feature vendors who sell food, clothing, jewelry and other goods. He said the festival typically has anywhere from 15 to 30 vendors, and in the past, has had vendors from out of state.

“What was a small event has grown,” Brooks said. “We may have had three or four vendors the first year. Now we’re probably one of the largest African-American activities in northeast Mississippi. It’s a large activity the people know and look forward to.”

Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.