Organizers prepare for tens of thousands to attend Denver’s annual Juneteenth Music Festival

DENVER — Organizers of the Juneteenth Music Pageant and Parade within the 5 Factors neighborhood count on greater than 50,000 folks to come back out over the course of the weekend, and are working with distributors and metropolis leaders to have crowd management and safety measures in place.

Juneteenth, which celebrates the tip of slavery in the USA, was formally acknowledged as a federal vacation final 12 months. In April, Colorado lawmakers designated Juneteenth an official state vacation.

The principle elements of the pageant are going down on and close to Welton Avenue in 5 Factors between twenty fourth and twenty ninth Streets. Crews have put up barricades to dam visitors to the world via the weekend.

RTD will even droop operation of its L Line prepare for the weekend due to the closure. Passengers that depend on the prepare are inspired to make use of Bus Route 43 as an alternate service. Regular operations for the L Line prepare will resume Monday, June 20.

“We wish everybody who involves get dwelling safely,” stated Norman Harris, govt director of the JMF Company, which is coordinating the music pageant. “There are safety gates which you must undergo clearance to get via. We’re doing bag checks. However we glance to get of us in as shortly as attainable, so it’s not an excessive amount of of a disruption to them.”

Forward of the Juneteenth Parade Saturday morning, visitors shall be diverted from twenty sixth and Downing Streets, Harris stated. The parade is scheduled to start at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, after which period visitors blockades for Downing and twenty sixth shall be eliminated.

In some ways, the quantity of crowd management planning that’s now required is a blessing. Jim “Dr. Daddio” Walker, who shall be serving as Grand Marshall for the parade, says he remembers nicely the years that Juneteenth was not acknowledged and celebrated broadly.

“We wish all people to know and know what Juneteenth means,” Walker stated. “Now that it has turn out to be a nationwide vacation, we wish it to have robust assist. And we wish it to develop and develop, and proceed. To by no means die.”

The Juneteenth Music Pageant and parade are free to the general public.

Denver7 is a proud sponsor of the Juneteenth Music Pageant.