Fresno Juneteenth Festival

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Join the celebration! The Fresno Juneteenth Festival is back!

The Take A Stand Committee and Fresno Juneteenth Collaborative are hosting several events during the five-day festival.

The festival runs from June 15-19, 2023.

Enjoy entertainment, vendor booths, history lessons and much more.

The celebration will be held at the Fresno Convention Center's Valdez Hall. Admission is free.

Learn more at fresnojuneteenth.com.

ABC30 is a proud sponsor of the Fresno Juneteenth Festival.

Juneteenth, observed annually on June 19, is a holiday that celebrates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States.

Celebrated by African Americans in Texas since the 1800s, this commemorative date has received deeper interest nationwide more recently.

While the Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery in the U.S. was issued on January 1, 1863, enslaved people in Texas were not informed of their new right to freedom until June 19, 1865, and that became the date they celebrated.

In 2021, President Joseph Biden signed into law Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, S. 475, creating a federal holiday to commemorate Juneteenth. This is the first federal holiday approved since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.