Norfolk's annual Juneteenth commemoration runs Friday through Sunday at Town Point Park.
This year's celebrations are bigger than ever, as they include more interactive educational programming and concerts featuring national headliners.
Crowds at the harbor will be heavier than usual as downtown hosts two other major events, the 50th anniversary of Harborfest and Sail250 Virginia.
City organizers, however, have said that they did not want Juneteenth, which celebrates the end of slavery in the United States, to get lost.
“Juneteenth stands as a legacy of enduring freedom, and it also celebrates diversity as the strength of our community,” said Mayor Kenneth Cooper Alexander in a news release.
The musical lineup includes local and regional artists performing jazz, funk, reggae, country and R & B. Grammy winner Patti LaBelle and Sister Sledge, a popular group of the 1970s and '80s, are performing Friday evening.
Other weekend highlights include:
- Fireworks Friday and Saturday night, 9:30 p.m.
- An Education Center at the Nauticus Pavilion that will include exhibits from the Chrysler Museum of Art, the Library of Virginia and coding games that highlight work by African American inventors.
- Historic interpreters who will represent local figures such as Joseph Jenkins Roberts, a Norfolk businessman who became the first president of Liberia; Moses Myers, Norfolk's first Jewish settler and Henry “Bluebeard” Lewey, an enslaved man who worked as a conductor of the Underground Railroad.
- Norfolk State University Radio and Music Theory Studios of Norfolk will have “Juneteenth Radio — A Voice of Freedom,” which will share cultural and historical interviews, quotes, readings and music.
- Juneteenth "Walk in History," large storyboards throughout Town Point Park that will serve as a self-guided tour through important moments in African American history.
Events are free. Visit festevents.org for more information.
