Freedom Center's Juneteenth Jubilee returns June 19

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 29, 2025
MEDIA CONTACT: Cody Hefner (513) 608-5777, chefner@nurfc.org

Freedom Center brings back Juneteenth Jubilee street festival

Live music, food trucks, community market and more June 19; free museum admission

CINCINNATI – The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is once again turning Freedom Way into a street festival to celebrate freedom. The Freedom Center’s second annual Juneteenth Jubilee will feature live music, food trucks, a market of community vendors, health and financial workshops and a range of interactive children’s activities. The event and admission to the Freedom Center is free on June 19. 

“Juneteenth is a day of jubilation – for the millions of enslaved people who were finally free and for their ancestors and their brothers and sisters of every color who moved one step closer to the promise of freedom this nation was founded on,” said Woodrow Keown, Jr., president and COO of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

True to the spirit of the earliest Juneteenth celebrations, the Freedom Center’s Juneteenth Jubilee brings people together around music, food and community. With a stage taking over Freedom Way, guests can sing and dance along to a DJ and live music as they stroll the 20+ vendors of the Community Market and enjoy a food truck feast.

Vendor applications for the Community Market are now open.

The Freedom Center’s Juneteenth Jubilee will culminate with a march down to the banks of the Ohio River, the symbolic River Jordan over which thousands of enslaved people crossed into freedom on the Underground Railroad.

Museum admission is also free on Juneteenth, courtesy of the Fifth Third Foundation. Guests can enjoy education workshops, story times and live presentations in the Harriet Tubman Theater. Two new exhibits will also dazzle guests as they tour the museum. In This Place, the Freedom Center’s first new permanent exhibit in 15 years, highlights the Freedom Center’s power of place, tracing the footsteps of the early freedom seekers who crossed the Ohio River to freedom in the 19th century, through the city’s impact on and participation in the Civil Rights Movement, the fight for marriage equality, Black Lives Matter and more. Faith & (in)Justice, a traveling exhibition developed by the Freedom Center, examines the intersection of religion and social justice in American history, breaking down barriers and opening dialogue.

Juneteenth Jubilee performance and programming updates can be found atfreedomcenter.org/Juneteenth.

History of Juneteenth
On Jun 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger landed at Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War had ended and the enslaved people of the nation were now free. The date, now celebrated as Juneteenth, came more than two-and-a-half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and nearly 250 years after the first enslaved Africans were brought to the Americas. In 2021, President Joe Biden declared Juneteenth a federal holiday.