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The Leimert Park Juneteenth Festival is now back on, according to organizers, after previously announcing on its website that the event had been cancelled. It will be held Wednesday, June 19 from 11am. To 8p.m. at Degnan Boulevard and 43rd Place in Los Angeles.
The Leimert Park Merchants Association said the celebration, themed “Black Family Reunion,” will go on as planned, despite earlier concerns about financial constraints.
The widely anticipated festival will feature musical performances, line dancing, poetry and drum circle dancers, along with Double Dutch jump roping and activities for children.
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Heather Hutt, in whose district the festival is housed, will name the “Sika Corridor” in Leimert Park in honor of Sika Dwimfo, the longest-standing merchant on Degnan Boulevard.
The Leimert Park Juneteenth festival is a long-standing tradition, created by Texas native Jonathan Leonard, in 1949. More than 70 years before it became a federal and California holiday, the Leonard family began celebrating Juneteenth and spreading the word throughout L.A.’s Black community about the history of June 19, and its relevance to Black history.
On June 19, 1865, 250,000 enslaved people in Texas became free—more than 2 years after the federal law went into effect—marking the end of slavery. That day became known as Juneteenth.
