Emory and Henry College features Inaugural Juneteenth Freedom Festival
11:00am - 4:00pm at the Van Dyke Center
The Gospel Sensations will be performing Saturday, June 18 at 3 p.m.
Free Family-Friendly Activities on Campus
Emory & Henry College will host an inaugural Juneteenth freedom festival on campus for the greater community of Southwest Va. and Northeast Tenn. including live music and local food trucks on Saturday, June 18, starting at 11 a.m. on its Emory, Va. campus off I-81 at exit 26.
Juneteenth is a celebration of the freedom of enslaved people in the United States at the end of the Civil War. The College’s celebration of Juneteenth will be led by the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging on campus.
The celebration will be held in front of Van Dyke Center near the Duck Pond and will include a variety of food trucks. The event opens at 11 a.m. with performances starting at 12 p.m. including spoken word poetry, singing, dancing and a spoken history of Juneteenth to celebrate freedom. At 3 p.m. the renowned Greensboro, N.C. gospel group The Gospel Sensations will perform a concert until 4 p.m.
In addition to the performances, the Juneteenth freedom festival will feature family activities including two inflatables, alpacas from Dreamland in Meadowview, Va., and arts and crafts. The festival will also include art for sale and various vendors. The festival is free and for all ages, organized by Emory & Henry and partnered with Middle Fork Records, the Appalachian Peace Education Center and the Mt. Pleasant Preservation Society & Museum for planning, logistics and outreach.
“Our hope is that our community will come together to celebrate Juneteenth and learn its history and the significance of this new federal holiday,” said John Holloway, Vice President of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging.
For more information about the festival and Emory & Henry’s Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging, please copy and paste https://www.ehc.edu/diversity-equity-inclusion/ or call Emily Bishop, DEI&B Program Specialist at (276) 944-6948. Registration is not necessary, and the event will take place rain or shine.
