Oxford Juneteenth will host its annual festival Saturday, June 18 from 3:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the parking lot of Oxford Intermediate School. The festival, which is celebrating its 15th year, is a chance for the community to gather and celebrate the holiday.

The festival will be marked by free family-friendly activities including arts and crafts, face-painting and water slides. The organizing committee – made up of event chairs Cecelia James Webb and Kesha Howell-Atkinson alongside Francis Howell, Sally Starks and Wayne Andrews – describes the event as a celebration of freedom. 

“Oxford Juneteenth and Juneteenth as a whole is a celebration of freedom,” Webb said. “We want everyone to just come out and enjoy the festival.” 

The festival will feature live music from New E Band, Damien Walsh and the Soultones. There will also be more than 55 local and regional vendors and entrepreneurs offering a variety of goods. 

The weekend festival will cap off a week full of other Juneteenth events including Linen on the Lawn, an outdoor music gathering that was hosted by Oxford Juneteenth on June 11 at the Old Armory Pavillion. 

On Thursday, June 16, Oxford Juneteenth also will host the Miss Oxford Juneteenth Pageant. Contestants will compete for five titles: Little Miss Oxford Juneteenth, Junior Teen Miss Oxford Juneteenth, Teen Miss Oxford Juneteenth and Miss Oxford Juneteenth. The pageant will take place at 5:30 p.m. at the Burns-Belfry Museum. 

The committee emphasizes that the goal of the events is to build bridges between neighborhoods in Oxford while celebrating freedom. 

Short for June 19, Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 that more than 250,000 enslaved individuals were freed in Texas, the last state in the Confederacy to have institutional slavery. 

In June 2021, Juneteenth was declared a federal holiday. It is the first holiday to be designated as a federal holiday since the introduction of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.