Indy Juneteenth celebrates holiday with week of events ending with a parade, festival

Juneteenth is coming up this Saturday, and if you’re looking to celebrate, there’s an entire week of events you can attend, leading up to the big event, the parade and festival!

Twjonia Webb, co-owner & Vice President of Indy Juneteenth and Resha Woods-Sutherlin, Miss Indy Juneteenth, joined us today to share more about the upcoming events and the first annual Miss Juneteenth Pageant that happened a couple weeks ago.

Juneteenth is a celebration of June 19, 1865. It commemorates the day soldiers reached Texas to tell slaves that the Civil War had ended, and that all slaves were emancipated. This came two years after Abraham Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation.

In 2020, for the first time in Indiana’s history, Juneteenth was made a Holiday for Hoosiers when Governor Eric Holcomb signed it into Executive Order.

The Indy Juneteenth Festival happens at Riverside Park on Saturday, June 19. The parade starts at 10 a.m., and the festival starts at Noon.

This is the third Annual Indy Juneteenth Festival, and The First Annual Indy Juneteenth Pageant.

Check out these photos from their past events: