The Athens Land Trust will be hosting its annual Juneteenth Celebration on June 19 at the West Broad Farmers Market, located at 300 S Rockspring St.
The celebration will last from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and include live music, performances and a maypole dedication. Attendees will also be able to shop for organic produce and artisan goods from local vendors.
The event will be in-person, but masks are required and social distancing measures will be in place. Because the event will be in-person, the farmers market’s drive-thru market will be on hiatus until the weekend of June 26.
Juneteenth, sometimes known as Freedom Day, celebrates June 19, 1865, when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform the state’s enslaved people that they were free. It put into effect the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been issued more than two years earlier on Jan. 1, 1863.
