LINK: Juneteenth Festival Schedule
Juneteenth Festival organizer Betty Sawyer considered canceling the event this year, due to a smaller than ideal budget that lacked the funds to bring in national acts
But Sawyer is glad she didn't.
"When I started looking at using more local acts, people came out of the woodwork," said Sawyer, who also heads Project Success, an educational outreach program. "It's a testament to the wealth of resources we already have in the state. We've been able to get reggae, R&B, hip-hop and gospel groups."
Sawyer teamed up with Carey Drisdom, a West Valley City musician and event coordinator, who stepped in as the festival's artistic director.
"This is probably the best local lineup you could find in Utah," Drisdom said. "Some of the acts have toured across the country. We had to turn some people away. We had too many bands. And they're all Ogden and Salt Lake area bands. I'm ecstatic to be part of this."
Sawyer said she's especially proud of one gospel choir.
"It's a community mass choir, which is always a highlight," she said. "We've had different church choirs in to perform, and a couple years ago, we put together a mass choir, which does a great show."
Food vendors will offer catfish dinners, dirty rice, barbecue, hot wings, peach cobbler, and burgers and hot dogs, among other things.
Children can enjoy a bounce house and free games that offer prizes and reinforce an anti-tobacco message. Health and wellness information will be available.
Juneteenth is a nationwide celebration of the 1865 announcement in Texas that the Civil War was over and the slaves were free. That news had been withheld from slaves for 2 1/2 years, until June 19, when Federal troops arrived to enforce President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.
Sawyer said the festival also celebrates African-American pride and community, and reinforces the importance of health and education.
"It celebrates a part of our history we take great pride in, and it gives us a better understanding of freedom and the price paid for people to enjoy freedoms today," she said. "By scaling back instead of canceling, we hope it provides a message to not give up, but to pull together as a community and to support each other."
PREVIEW
l WHAT: Ogden Juneteenth Festival
l WHEN: Beginning at 6 p.m. today, noon Saturday and Sunday
l WHERE: Ogden Amphitheater, 343 Historic 25th St.
l ADMISSION: $5
Comments