As Denver’s Juneteenth scales back, organizers push forward
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DENVER — Standing across the street from the liquor store his grandfather once owned, Norman Harris doesn’t flinch at the news that the Juneteenth Music Festival is down $80,000 in corporate sponsorship.
“In the time since Juneteenth has been celebrated in Denver, there have been quite a few social and political events that have highlighted the need for our community to stand together,” Harris said. “We’ve survived them all before.”
The sudden lack of funding forced Harris to cut the festival from two days to one. However, THE DROP 104.7, an R&B and hip-hop station, announced it is co-sponsoring the event, which now includes a concert from the rapper Juvenile. (Note: THE DROP 104.7 is part of Rocky Mountain Public Media, which includes Rocky Mountain PBS. Station leadership did not influence the reporting of this piece.)
Denver held its first Juneteenth celebration in 1966. Now a federal holiday, Juneteenth celebrates the day enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed — more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Harris has been involved in Juneteenth organizing since 2012. He became the head of the committee in 2015. He is also the executive director of the Five Points Business Improvement District.
As a third-generation Denverite, Harris sees the Juneteenth Music Festival as a tribute to the legacy of his father, grandfather and the many Black families who built their lives in Five Points — Denver’s historically Black neighborhood grappling with rising costs and rapid gentrification.
His Grandfather, Norman Harris Sr., served with the United States Air Force in the Korean War before moving to Five Points, where he owned two liquor stores and later opened an apartment building for low-income veterans.
“He was an incredible role model for me in regards to just being a pillar in this community and a person of integrity,” Harris said of his grandfather.
Harris is drawing on his grandfather’s legacy of integrity and perseverance as he prepares to lead the Juneteenth Music Festival with a sharply reduced budget. He declined to name the sponsors who pulled their support, choosing instead to spotlight the partners who have stayed committed.
Ex-funders who pulled their support told Harris their plans in April, a time when he’s usually finalizing details for the festival in June.
“At some point, we'll take a deeper dive and try to get more specific feedback on some of the reasons behind a change in support, but I think the timing of when we learned this put us at a disadvantage because it was so close to when we had to make the festival happen,” Harris said.
The festival will be one day instead of its usual two, but Harris said it will otherwise look the same as it always has: music, food trucks, vendors and a youth zone will take over Welton Street on June 15.
Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, a nonprofit that funds arts and creative leadership in Denver, donated $20,000 to this year’s festival in hopes of offsetting some of the losses.
“There are a select number of cultural events that really capture the heartbeat of Denver, and Juneteenth is one of those cultural celebrations that is really at the heart of what it means to be a vibrant Denver,” said Anthony Grimes, Bonfils-Stanton Foundation’s director of communications.
Grimes said Juneteenth Music Festival puts the spotlight on Denver’s Black community, which he believes is often overshadowed.
“You mix the food and the legacy and the music and the sense of pride for being a Denverite and a member of the Black community, it's just one of those perfect mixes of celebration and joy and honoring of a history that’s been lost,” Grimes said.
While Harris said he’s unsure why sponsors pulled out, Terri Gentry, History Colorado’s engagement manager for Black communities, said the loss of support mirrors a national trend tied to growing backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
“It's an effort to silence the population because of all the political stuff that's impacting more than just us,” Gentry said.
Sponsors have cut funds from social justice-centric festivals across the country as the Trump administration has scrubbed information about Black history from national parks and threatened to pull federal funding from schools and universities that teach about racism in the United States. Denver PrideFest also lost 62% of its funding.
Gentry said she believes Black Americans have never experienced full liberation. To her, Juneteenth serves as both a celebration of progress and a reminder of how much has been lost along the way.
“We’ve started seeing an erosion in our rights and our human rights and civil rights being taken away from us,” Gentry said.
Gentry hopes Juneteenth’s recognition as a federal holiday will prompt more Americans to reflect on its historical roots and connect its meaning to the struggles for justice that persist today.
“Juneteenth is like a wake-up call,” Gentry said. “Everybody has to work toward the freedom of everybody on this continent.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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